Downgrade
by LucyLuna
Summary: A fight with the Tinkerer ends with the Prowler the victim of his latest invention and Gwen having to work swiftly in order to fix the mess it created. Part twenty-one of My Memories Came Back in the Form of Someone Else series. Complete.
1. Unlucky Thirteen

_Downgrade_

* * *

Gwen was starting to feel like they'd seen too much of the Tinkerer lately. As she avoided a robot with metal drills for hands she wondered if whoever the fuck his guardian was knew he was fighting with her and the Prowler in the middle of Queens. Or that he just tried to use his army of robots to steal the abstract airplane statue from outside the New York Hall of Science because he _ liked it_. Surely they had to? All of these… _ menaces _ were being made in their Goddamn home, weren't they?

"Ha!" she yelled in victory as she finally took out drill-hands and vaulted off its head to go for another that was trying to corner the Prowler.

Maybe his adult was out of town? Overseas? She pondered the possibilities as she wrapped a shot of webbing around another robot's arm and yanked it out of its socket with her superior strength. "Ooh, not so scary now, are we?" Gwen taunted the robot as she waved its detached arm in the air.

It didn't pay her any mind, single-mindedly focused on destroying the Prowler in front of it. However, the Tinkerer did give Gwen a reaction when he cried, "Hey! That took me ages to attach!"

Gwen laughed and dodged a small explosive he shot at her from his little flying saucer. "Well, guess you should have made it more durable, twerp!" she taunted.

The kid bared his teeth at her. "I'll show you who's a twerp!" he yelled reaching down into his saucer. "I've got a new invention that will _ really _show us who's the pipsqueak now," he crowed before reappearing with what looked like a retrofitted police speed radar. Waving it in the air, he cackled maniacally until his voice cracked from puberty.

Gwen rolled her eyes behind her mask and hardly gave his babble any true consideration. He was a kid taking cues from cartoon villains, after all. She had some more immediate issues at hand too; all of these stupid, nuisance _ robots_. Ducking and rolling beneath the legs of yet another one as it came at her, Gwen popped up on the other side only to strike at the robot with a kick in its back where she saw a panel. As she hoped would happen, the panel door dented inward and the robot began to shake and seize. Gwen felt particularly satisfied by the sight and grinned. However, her small joy abruptly ended when the Prowler yelled, "Spider-Woman!"

She turned her head just enough to see a bright yellow-white beam of light coming right at her from the Tinkerer's retrofitted speed radar. She gave a small gasp and instantly started to propel her body away from the light. It wouldn't be enough, though, she knew. Hopefully, it would only clip her instead of hitting her full-force. Squeezing her eyes shut against the oncoming attack Gwen hoped it would be enough to save her from the worst of the laser's impact. However, when Gwen hit the ground seconds later, she felt no different than when she first noticed the beam coming for her (besides her now smarting shoulder, anyway).

As if to prove she'd escaped his attack unscathed, Tinkerer suddenly gave a furious cry. She opened her eyes to see the kid up in his saucer pointing a finger down at her – no, the spot she'd been in – in an accusatory manner. "There's only enough power in this gun for one zap every twenty hours and you _ stole _it! I will get you for this Prowler!" the boy yowled. Gwen heard then over the blood thrumming in her ears the sound of her fellow vigilante groaning in what sounded like pain. She turned her head and saw he was writhing on the ground, his costume oddly loose around him and he was… steaming? Gwen felt unsure how else to describe the vapors that appeared to be rising off the Prowler. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the Tinkerer zipping off.

Torn, she yelled, "Hey!" and tried to get up and shoot webbing at his retreating saucer, however, that was when the last couple of robots left behind by the kid took notice of Gwen and came at her. Sighing in aggravation, she set to work at destroying them and keeping them away from the Prowler.

Her gut was churning as if she'd just gotten off the spinning teacups at Coney Island and all she wanted to do was run to the Prowler's side and make sure he wasn't too badly hurt, but right now, she had to take out the hunks of junk first. If she didn't, they could close in on her while she was with the Prowler and end up hurting _ both _ of them and make it impossible for Gwen to get them to safety. Taking out the robots as fast as she could, she soon left their dented and sparking bodies where they fell and regrouped beside Prowler who was no longer giving off vapor and had stilled. His costume was still strangely loose and as Gwen fell to her knees next to him it didn't take her long to realize why. The Prowler had _ shrunk_.

"Shit," she cursed. Reaching out, she laid a hand on what she figured was his shoulder and gave it a gingerly shake. "Hey, Prowler?" she called. "Aaron?" she said, softer. He shifted ever so slightly and moaned. Gwen released a breath of relief. Well, whatever had happened, he was alive. Looking around them, she realized they couldn't stay. Not like this. Gwen bit her lip. She hoped it wouldn't hurt him too much…

Pulling Aaron into a sitting position, she gathered him onto her back and brought one of his smaller, oddly thin arms to hook around her shoulders and used one hand to hang on to it and used the other to aim her web-shooter at a nearby light post and swing them away from the remains of their battle with the Tinkerer.

Gwen swung them down several streets, turning frequently onto new ones and occasionally staying on a road for a good while before changing direction. Finally, she swung them down an alley and ran them across several rooftops before landing on one that was sheltered by apartment buildings on either side and let Aaron off her shoulders. Resting down on the roof's pavement next to Aaron, she peeled his mask away from his face and gasped.

Muzzily, he cracked open an eye and muttered a hoarse, "What?"

She stared at him completely mute. What should she say? _How_? Aaron looked… He was a _ kid_. Younger than she was now, she'd even wager. He looked a little like Miles. She snorted to herself. No surprise there, they _ were _related.

Aaron's opened his eyes into a squint at the sound. "What?" he said again, a small frown quirking at the corners of his mouth and a faint line of confusion developing across his forehead once he realized his voice was more than a little rough, but _ wrong_.

Gwen, though, was only noticing this peripherally. What she was really finding herself taken with was how much Aaron's eyes reminded her of Miles's right now. They were curiously expressive, just like his alternate 'verse nephew's eyes. Were they that way because he was too shaken to be guarded? Or was it because he was suddenly thirteen? "Oh my God," she murmured, feeling just a little sick still.

Aaron, who seemed to be coming back to himself, was running his hands all over himself and noticing for the first time just how ill-fitting and baggy his once skin-tight suit had become. After a minute, he rested his shaking hands on his face and looked at her with large, panicked eyes. "Gwen?" he whispered.

"I guess this is what the Tinkerer meant when he said he'd show me who's really the pipsqueak," she replied.

Immediately, Aaron began to scowl. "_ What _ did he really mean?" he demanded in his strange, not quite right voice. It reminded her kind of Miles's voice. And Peter's. It wasn't a man's voice, but there was no mistaking that Aaron wasn't a little kid either.

"You're…" Gwen started only to trail off and throw up her hands in frustration and nerves. She might as well just say it! "Thirteen, I guess?"

"Thir— You're shitting me!" he decried.

Gwen bit into her lip and hugged herself. Oh, she was not good in situations like these. Not to mention she was sort of afraid of what Aaron might do if she said the wrong thing right now. He might try and run away or something stupid like that.

Thankfully, Aaron didn't seem to be expecting her to answer, however, as he was feeling around his loose suit until he gave a small sound of triumph and pulled out the Goober she'd given him ages ago now. Hitting several buttons on it, he eventually projected a hologram image of himself in the air. His face was surprisingly pale as he touched his jaw and then the top of his head and finally pinched his fuller cheeks. "Fuck," he swore before letting the Goober fall from his fingers into the pools of fabric around him.

"I'll fix this," said Gwen, hoping it would appease Aaron a little. "I'll go hunt down that little shit and steal his laser gun." She smiled a bit, though, Aaron couldn't tell through her mask. "If we can't figure out how to reverse it, I'll give it to Peni. She'll have you put right in no time at all."

Aaron glowered at her, unimpressed. "And me? What am I going to do in the meantime? I can't go with you." He lifted an arm, showing her how the fabric of his sleeve slid right over it and pooled beneath it like fat on an overweight person.

Gwen sighed in exasperation. "Look, I've done plenty of retrieval missions like this on my own," she assured Aaron. "I can do this one too."

"What if he zaps you into a baby?" he demanded. "I probably lost fourteen or fifteen years, you know."

She couldn't help but pat his leg. He glared at her for it. "You might not have heard since you were… changing… but he says it takes twenty hours for that gun to charge up to shoot off a beam. I just got to find him and take it before then and that won't be a problem."

He looked entirely unimpressed by her plan. "You know his identity too and just never said nothing?" he asked a distinctly bitter tone to his words.

Gwen resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Aaron had been prickly in all sorts of ways since their Christmas Eve Eve conversation. This was just one of the most annoying ones. "_ No _ ," she said. "In Peter's 'verse he's an old man and in Porker's a _ goat_," she explained. "Peter knows the name of his old man Tinkerer, but Porker doesn't know his Tinkerer's civilian identity. So, I'm going to do my best to figure out who the Hell _ our _Tinkerer is from the little bit that can be used from Peter and Porker's."

Aaron seemed only more upset by her answer. "How long will _ that _ take?"

Gwen put her face in her hands and just breathed in and out. She needed to stay calm right now. Clearly, Aaron wasn't going to be a voice of reason for the time being (not that she blamed him, he was missing fifteen years). "Not to freak you out or anything, but I've been trying to research all along who you guys are as civilians if I didn't already know." She lifted her face from her hands and looked at Aaron who was staring at her with grudging respect. "I've got a couple of good ideas about who the Tinkerer could be, especially with the additional stuff from Peter and Porker to back up or disprove my theories," concluded Gwen.

"Fine," he relented. He pointed a finger in her face. "I want you to come back and regroup if you don't have the gun before the twenty hours are up. We can't risk you getting turned into a baby," Aaron warned. "You'd be completely defenseless and there's no tellin' what he'd do with you."

She nodded. That was a fair request. Gwen supposed if they really wanted to play safe, calling Porker or Peter would be a good idea. They could go looking for the Tinkerer with her and they'd be fine if they got hit with a laser. Peter was plenty old and Porker wasn't exactly a kid either according to him. "Right," she answered. "As for you…"

"Help me to my apartment, I can lay low there for now," Aaron said.

Gwen immediately shook her head. "Nuh-huh, dude," she argued. "We don't know the full effects of that gun." Aaron pursed his lips as if he was going to argue and Gwen raised her voice to stop him. "We're super lucky you knew who I was when you came around looking thirteen! What if it'd gone and screwed with your head too? What if it will _ later _? You can't stay alone in an apartment that you might not recognize in that case!"

"What do you suggest then?" Aaron asked, sneering and arms crossed.

Gwen wracked her brain for a bit. "You could… Hm, May is out of town on vacation with some friends." She felt a little uneasy, but asked all the same, "Is Mr. Davis…?"

Aaron sighed and let his head drop. "Yeah, him and Rio know," he admitted. "Since I'm doing the hero thing, he'd probably help us out."

Gwen relaxed a little. They had options, good. She'd kind of worried she'd have to leave him with a spider from another 'verse and drag everybody into this mess before she had the chance to try and fix it herself. "Okay," she said. "I'll run into a shop nearby and pick you up some sweats that'll fit to change into and then I'll take you there before I go to look for the Tinkerer." She eyed him. "This sound doable to you?"

Aaron, who'd pulled his knees up near his chest some time ago, rested his elbows on them and then pillowed his chin on his arms. "Yeah," he answered. "I can sit tight fifteen. If I think of any better plans, I'll let you know when you come back."

She couldn't help but laugh a little. "Sounds good, see you soon!" she said before throwing herself off the building and swinging herself back down the street toward the sportswear and goods shop she'd seen a street or two ago while flying her and Aaron to safety.

* * *

**I was going to write something different to follow up the last story in this series, but this one grabbed me and so here we are. I hope you enjoy it! It's going to be at least a few chapters long I'm pretty sure.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. What Big Brothers Are For

_Downgrade_

* * *

Just over an hour after being turned thirteen again, Aaron and Gwen were standing on the sidewalk in front of Jeff and Rio's home. Pulling down on the strings of drawstring bag Gwen got Aaron to put his gear in, he tried to focus on the uncomfortable feeling of the strings digging into his shoulder instead of the bass-like thumping of his heart and the slow trickle of sweat down his forehead. He didn't think he'd felt this uncertain about his welcome anywhere in years. Not since he was a kid about this age coming home to his family's apartment unsure if his mom's latest boyfriend would be inside waiting for somebody to pick a fight with after waking up hungover and in need of a fix.

Aaron's eyes leaped from Rio and Jeff's front door to Gwen when she put a hand on his shoulder. "Ready?" she asked.

"Fuck no," he answered sharp and angry. Gwen's fingers quickly fell from his shoulders and Aaron realized his mistake. He sighed. "There's no way anyone can be ready for somethin' like this," he explained in a quieter, calmer tone. "We just need to do it and I'll be fine eventually." He looked to his cold, bare feet. Gwen had opted not to pick up shoes for him when she was getting him something to wear that would fit him.

("_I didn't know what size to get and it's February, so there are no flip-flops around. Besides, I'll be swinging us both there and your feet will be on the ground only a minute or two when we arrive."_)

Gwen nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry, Aaron," she said in a small voice, "I should have taken the Tinkerer's threat more seriously."

He looked up. Aaron always hated when Gwen got down on herself like this. Yeah, she'd fucked up, but she was a _ kid_. She was supposed to. Not to mention he'd made his own share of mistakes when he was starting out in the villain business. "Naw, don't do that," he told her, gently elbowing her in the arm to get her to look back at him. "That kid is _ always _talking shit," Aaron said with a brief grin.

She gave a weak giggle. "Except not this time," replied Gwen in a ruthful way. "Anyway, I guess it's time we knock, huh? We are kind of in a countdown for plan A here," she remarked effectively ending the conversation of how much of the blame she should be taking on her shoulders.

He wanted to fight her, but knew better. Gwen was right, they didn't have time. He glanced at his feet again and wriggled his toes. They were starting to become numb too. "Yeah," he agreed.

The two walked up the steps of Jeff and Rio's stoop and Aaron rung the bell. After he dropped his hand back to his side, Gwen turned her face toward him and asked, "Oh crap, do you think he's even home? I know my dad's at the precinct today."

Aaron pursed his lips. Shit. What were they going to do if Jeff or Rio weren't here? He started to say, "I don't—"

When he was cut off by the door opening to reveal his older brother. Jeff was dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a basketball jersey. First, his eyes went to Gwen. His mouth fell open at the sight of her. "Spider-Woman?" he said, checking her over in a way he was intimately familiar with from when he was a kid. Aaron almost smirked, it was amusing (and kinda cute) that Jeff was using his discerning big brother eye on Spider-Woman to make sure she wasn't hurt.

Aaron watched amused as the eyes of Gwen's mask curved as she smiled behind it. "Hi," she said, waving a hand in greeting.

He stiffened when Jeff's eyes finally drifted to him. For a moment, his brother didn't say a word. He just _ stared_. Then, he reached beneath his glasses and scrubbed his eyes. "…Aaron?" he whispered finally, reaching out and cupping Aaron's chin with one of his uncomfortably larger hands. Aaron gritted his teeth and let his brother carefully move his face side-to-side a couple of times. "Goddamn. Are you Aaron's _ son_?" he asked, breathless when he finally let go of him.

Aaron tried to smirk at Jeff, but knew he had to look a wrong move from breaking down. "No. Bro, it's _ me_."

"You didn't tell me the guy I was bringing to you was a cop," said Gwen suddenly, breaking the moment between him and Jeff and causing him to _ breathe. _

He wrinkled his nose once Gwen's words registered. "What're you—?" he started only for Gwen to entirely ignore him.

"Sorry, Officer," she said, cutting off the last half of his question. " I'm sure this is all coming as a bit of a surprise," she said to Jeff, "but we ran into a bit of a problem today and I need somewhere safe to keep Prowler while I work on fixing _ this_." To drive home her point, she gestured to Aaron as an inventor might to his latest gadget or a ringleader at a circus to a lion. Just like a reporter at an inventor's reveal or an attendee at a circus, Jeff's eyes followed Gwen's gesture and his brother's attention was fixed on Aaron once again.

Wryly, Aaron explained to his brother, "I'd go with her, but I don't fit in my suit."

"You probably wouldn't do too well using your claws either," said Gwen, tone speculative. "I think that'd be the bigger problem of the two."

Aaron couldn't help the feeling of affront that bubbled in his chest. "I'd have to practice with 'em a bit first, get a feel for 'em at this size, but I'd be fine," he argued.

"Uh-huh," replied Gwen not bothering to disguise her disbelief. "I bet you'd slice your foot off before you got the hang of them at this size."

Vehemently, Aaron argued, "I wouldn't."

Jeff seemed to take his further denial as his cue to jump in and in rapid-fire asked, "How much do they weigh? How strong d'you think you are right now? What about your balance is it as good as it was when you were the right age?" Aaron found himself gaping opened mouth at his brother, sputtering. Jeff just crossed his arms and smirked. Obviously delighted to have left him speechless.

Gwen began to laugh. "He's got some good points, Prowler!"

Aaron couldn't help but scowl. "Shut up, Spider-Woman," he snapped.

"Hey!" Jeff chided, causing him to stiffen. "Don't speak to her like that."

The eyes of Gwen's mask became little more than crescents. "_ Yeah_, Prowler," she said.

He just deepened his frown. "You get the fuck outta here," he told Gwen reaching over and giving her a light push. "Weren't you the one who said we're working on a time-limit?"

Jeff jolted. "Time-limit for what?" he demanded, alarmed.

"It's all right, Officer," Gwen assured. "The time limit is just for getting the weapon that did this back on my own." She turned her palms to the sky and shrugged. "I guess it needs twenty hours to charge?" Then Gwen explained in a more certain tone, "If I don't get it back myself in the next day, I'll need to call for backup. Which will slow down turning the Prowler here back into himself." Pointing at herself, Gwen told Jeff, "I can't risk getting hit with it because I'd probably end up much younger than him."

Aaron scoffed. "Probably?"

Gwen flapped a dismissive hand in Aaron's face. "Okay, I _ will_, but not the point."

"Uh-huh," he said, crossing his arms.

Gwen shot him a quick look before turning to Jeff once again. Rubbing the back of her head, she apologized, "Well, er, I'm sorry I had to just drop him on you, Officer…"

"It's fine," Jeff said, causing Aaron to jump when he put one of his hands on the back of his neck. "I'd rather he was here with me than anywhere else."

"Um, okay, cool. So I'm gonna… go," said Gwen, jutting a thumb at the street behind her. Turning her face slightly so she was looking straight at him, she told Aaron, "Prowler, I'll contact you on the Goober with updates."

He nodded. "Yep, be safe, aight?"

"I'll do my best," Gwen agreed. Shooting off a stream of webbing at a nearby streetlight, she called, "See you!" Before taking off.

Aaron waved goodbye once. Jeff's hand still resting on the back of his neck, together, the two of them watched Gwen fly down the street and finally disappear from view when she turned a corner.

"Why don't we go inside?" Aaron's brother suggested. "You can explain _ exactly _what happened in there."

He looked up at Jeff. "Rio and Miles home?" asked Aaron.

Jeff shook his head. "Miles is at his friend Aliyah's home for a while yet and Rio's working till seven."

Aaron nodded. "Okay," he said before letting his brother guide him inside.

-o-O-o-

Once Aaron finished telling Jeff the extended version of what happened, his brother just leaned back on his couch and stared at Aaron. After a minute or two of it, Aaron hopped up from the armchair he'd been lounging in as he talked to his brother. Taking a couple of steps forward, he crossed his arms and glared down at Jeff. "Would you stop staring at me?" he demanded. Aaron felt weird enough as it was, his new (old?) perspective felt foreign and made him hyper-aware of his surroundings and nervous. Every time he talked, he didn't believe it was actually him saying the words at first and looking at his hands and feet often had him doing double-takes. Aaron didn't even want to start to imagine how he'd feel when he got a real, true look at himself in a proper mirror.

Jeff lowered his eyes to his lap. "I'm sorry, I just…" his brother trailed off and sighed. Putting his hands on his knees, he looked up at Aaron again, meeting his gaze. "You realize how crazy this all is, don't you?"

"Yes!" Aaron huffed. He pointed at his face aggressively. "I'm the one living it."

"Aight, aight!" Jeff said, raising his hands in a calming gesture. Aaron continued to glare at Jeff in response, wanting to drive home just how stupid he thought his brother's question had been. His brother leaned back into the couch again and tilted his head. "What exactly are your plans if you and Spider-Woman can't fix this?" he asked.

Aaron furrowed his brows. "We're going to fix it," he said. They had to. Aaron wasn't doing puberty again.

"Sure you are," Jeff agreed, though, Aaron felt he was only saying it to placate him. Then, to prove this, he said, "But humor me a minute, _ what if_?"

He looked away. Aaron refused to think about it. He was just barely keeping his panic under wraps as it was. If he started thinking like this was permanent, he would start breaking things. Starting with the nice, shiny new TV in the corner of Jeff's living room. "We'll decide when it happens," he told Jeff.

His brother seemed to relent finally at his answer. Aaron watched warily as his brother reached up and placed a hand on his shoulder. Jeff gave his newly bony shoulder a squeeze with his large, much stronger hand. "I just want you to know you gotta place here if it does happen, okay?" he said, giving him a light shake to make Aaron meet his gaze. "I'm not gonna just leave you to struggle with being a kid in a man's world all on your own."

Aaron didn't know why, but he felt relieved. "Thanks, Jeff," he said.

Jeff smiled. "Any time, lil'bro."

"What're you gonna tell Mile?" he asked.

Jeff looked off to the side and scratched the back of his neck. "Hm, let's see…" he murmured. "I guess we could say you're a coworker's kid and you're staying with us a couple of days while he's in the hospital sick," he suggested after a minute.

Aaron shrugged. Miles was a smart kid (if his opinion as a proud uncle could be trusted), but he was still just seven. He'd believe the lie. Especially since it wasn't like him and Jeff had a lot of pictures from when they were this young he could or had seen. Their mom hadn't had the money (or interest) for film or developing pictures. The few they did have were school photos until they hit their teens and started taking their own pictures of each other. "If you think that'll work."

"It will," Jeff said. His brother then looked at the couch and ran his hand over the worn fabric of the cushion next to him. "You don't mind sleeping on the couch, do you?"

He shook his head. "Naw."

"Good," Jeff replied. His brother's expression then turned scrutinizing. Looking Aaron over, his eyes trained in on the bag that was now hanging off one of his shoulders. "We should probably put that bag with your suit and claws where Miles can't find it."

Aaron slipped it off and held out to Jeff. "Here, throw it on a shelf in one of your closets. He won't get up there."

"Thanks," said Jeff, taking it. His eyes then honed in on Aaron's bare feet. "I think we should go get you some shoes and other stuff." He began to tick off items on his fingers. "Y'know, a change of clothes, a hairbrush, soap, that kind of thing."

Aaron frowned. "I can just borrow some of your stuff, can't I?"

"They'd be too big," Jeff replied. "Besides, Miles will _ know _it's all mine. He'll realize we're lying then."

Aaron really didn't want to go out and shop. Not like this. "We could say I lost it all in a fire," he said.

Jeff got up from the couch and gave Aaron's shoulder a pat. "Come on, Aaron, it won't take that long," he said, heading for the hall. "You can borrow a pair of Rio's boots for now," he called. "They're black and should fit better than anything I have."

Aaron exhaled in defeat. "Fine," he agreed as he drudged after his brother. He hoped Rio's boots didn't have heels.

* * *

**Here's chapter two :) How do you like it? Did you enjoy Aaron and Jeff interacting?**

**Thank you so much for reading!**


	3. Accepting Helping Hands

_Downgrade_

* * *

Jeff looked away from the sponges and loofahs he'd been casually considering when he heard the clatter of products being dropped into the cart he and Aaron were using. Looking into it, he sighed when he saw it was all stuff no one but misers and the truly disadvantaged used. Reaching down, he gathered it all back up and looked at his little brother with a stern eye.

For his part, Aaron just crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. He was _ daring _Jeff to say something. Too bad for Aaron he had no problem with that.

Pushing the stuff back in his brother's arms, he said, "Aaron, you don't have to pick the cheapest _ everything_. What you don't use after this is fixed, we will."

Aaron frowned down at the soap, shampoo, and deodorant in his hands. "I know," he said. Eyes drifting to the side as he seemed to recall earlier events, he grumbled, "but I _ should _be paying for all this. If Spider-Woman hadn't used all my emergency cash on these clothes…"

Jeff pinched the bridge of his nose. Really, he got it. Aaron wasn't the only prideful Davis. Jeff knew if he were in a similar situation he wouldn't feel too comfortable using Aaron's money to buy stuff he should be perfectly capable of paying for himself. Deciding to try a new approach, he appealed, "Look, Aaron, you're my _ brother_. I don't mind helping you out. I know you'd do the same if I were in a tight spot."

Aaron nodded slowly. "I would," agreed his brother.

Jeff pointed for Aaron to put the stuff back where he found it. "So put that shitty soap back and get the actual face-wash I saw you eyeing when we were in the face and body wash aisle," he ordered while staring his little brother down.

Stubborn to a fault, Aaron glowered back at him for a solid minute before he finally relented. Shoulders falling, he said, "…Okay."

Watching Aaron walk off and put the stuff back and pick products he actually _ liked_, Jeff shook his head in an attempt to hide his amusement. While he knew his little brother was stubborn, it'd been a good decade since he'd been confronted by it in such a way.

-o-O-o-

Some twenty minutes later, Jeff was watching, slightly bored, as Aaron browsed the clearance racks looking for things he half-way liked and fit him. His little brother had tried to argue when Jeff first steered them this way, but he refused to even humor Aaron. Maybe he and Spider-Woman were confident this would be fixed in a day or two, but what if took an extra day? Or, God forbid, a _ week_? Aaron needed at least one more outfit and something to sleep in. Jeff really didn't mind spending the money either. He'd donate it after Aaron was done with it and he was sure some young boy would be delighted to get clothes as barely used as Aaron's.

Jeff followed Aaron as he walked around one rack and to a table of pants. His lips quirked with a smirk when his little brother picked up a pair to inspect only to pout seconds later. Clearly, they'd done something to disappoint him. Reaching for his phone, he flipped it open and opened the camera. Pointing it at Aaron he discreetly took a photo. Next, Jeff went to his messages and he scrolled down a little until he reached Rio and clicked on her name. Selecting the photo he had just taken from his gallery, he sent it off to her. With care, he then typed:

_ Hey. Call me on ur next break, k? We got a "guest" staying w/us 4 a bit. _

Hitting send, Jeff then pocketed his phone and returned his attention to Aaron. It seemed in the minute he'd been looking away his brother had found a pair of pants he approved of and was now working on finding a track jacket from a rack full of them. As he watched Aaron skip right over some of the more interesting colors (jail suit orange? really?), he felt his phone buzz against his thigh. Pulling it out, he was surprised and not surprised to see Rio had already replied. She must have been on one of her breaks already Jeff mused. To prove him correct, his message read:

_ Call now? Taking break rn. Kid looks like Aaron. He drop off a secret son? _

Jeff replied:

_ No. Call next 1. Shopping w/him now. No, not his son. Thank God. I'll explain everything ltr. _

Not a minute later, Rio sent:

_ Better b good. Love u. Ttyl. _

Jeff began to type "love you too" to Rio when Aaron popped up next to him, arms full. Dropping it in the cart, Aaron told Jeff, "I have a change of clothes and some pants to sleep in tonight."

"Yeah?" he replied, looking down at the bundle of fabrics appraisingly. "How about some drawers? Socks?" he questioned.

"Yep," Aaron replied, bobbing his head. "Undershirts too, before you ask."

Jeff put a hand on the back of Aaron's neck and gave him a light, approving squeeze. "Good job," he praised.

His little brother tilted his head slightly to look up at him. "I'm not actually thirteen, Jeff," he said, sounding both amused and disgusted.

Jeff let go of Aaron as if he'd accidentally grabbed a still-hot pan off the stove. "I know," he said, looking away, embarrassed. "It's just… Habit," he mumbled. Admittedly, it was an old one, but it seemed to have come back with a vengeance since he first saw Aaron, all of thirteen-years-old, on his stoop.

"Uh-huh," said Aaron, rolling his eyes in disbelief.

He held back a sigh and cast his gaze to the shoes he saw just past a table stacked with button-ups. "Let's go get you some shoes and head out, aight?" he said.

"Aight," Aaron agreed. As they walked over, a display of shoes at one end caught his brother's attention. Making a beeline for it, he picked up one of the display shoes and showed it to Jeff, eyes wide and excited. "Hey!" he exclaimed. "They got Heelies on display." Looking down at the shoe, Aaron began to turn it over in his hands and inspect it. "'Member these?" he asked. "They came out just around Middle school and people started wearing 'em to school so much they got banned."

"I remember," Jeff answered taking the shoe from his little brother and looking over the heel of it where he knew the wheel to be placed. Rio had made him promise to never buy a pair of these for Miles; she had seen too many kids come to the hospital needing stitches and casts after getting a pair. Jeff didn't think Aaron would need either if he bought these for him. Aaron had always been naturally agile. He looked up from the shoe and at Aaron. His little brother was smirking and Jeff found himself returning it as he remarked, "You were going to lift yourself a pair, but they got banned before you had the chance."

Aaron nodded. "Yeah, that sucked," he said. He made a grabbing motion for the shoe then and Jeff handed the display back to his brother who turned it over one last time before placing it back on the shelf.

Seeing the small downward quirk of Aaron's mouth as he turned back around to face Jeff, he told him, "If you want them now, you can have them." Jeff had the money to splurge a little on Aaron and if he really wanted the Heelies, he'd buy them for him.

His brother shook his head. "Don't be an idiot," he huffed. "I'm not a kid, regular shoes are fine."

Jeff reached past Aaron and for a larger size of the shoes. Pushing them into Aaron's arms, he insisted, "No, try some on. You always wanted a pair and now you can have them."

His brother's brows furrow and he said, "They're too much—"

"Rio and me are not hurting for money, okay?" Jeff told Aaron, cutting him off. Putting a hand on the back of his brother's neck, he led him to a nearby seat and gently pushed him to sit down. "I can afford to get my little brother one of his childhood dreams." His little brother looked up at him, the shoes still clutched in his arms. Aaron was good at not expressing too much of what he was thinking or feeling, but Jeff probably knew Aaron better than just about anybody. That look in his eyes was hope even if he was all but grimacing with the rest of his face.

Aaron _ wanted _these shoes.

He sighed and took a knee. Meeting his brother's gaze, he said, softer, "Really, Aaron. It's okay." He smirked as an idea came to him. Aaron wouldn't be able to reject the shoes any longer after Jeff explained how he really wouldn't be losing too much money on this purchase. Smirking, he told Aaron, "If it'll make you feel better, I can sell them later on the For Sale board at work once you're yourself again and make most of my money back."

Aaron's grip tightened on the box. "It's really okay?" he asked, not looking at Jeff.

Jeff closed his eyes a moment. "Try the damn things on, Aaron," he ordered before getting back to his feet. "I said it was," he assured. "Now, hurry up, would you? We have to be back at my place for when Aliyah's mom or dad drops Miles off in an hour."

His brother gave him one last dubious look before taking the lid off the box and pulling one of the Heelies out. Looking at it, he said, "I'll try it, but can you go get a bigger pair? These are about the size of Rio's boots." He dropped his attention to his feet. "And they're a little tight at the toes."

Jeff felt the tension bleed from his shoulders and a big smile split across his face. He'd won this round. Aaron was going to let Jeff treat him in this small way. As he stepped away to get a size larger he wondered if there wouldn't be more opportunities over the next day or two to give Aaron a taste of the childhood they should have had.

-o-O-o-

Once Aaron was safely in the care of Miles's dad, Gwen went home to go over her research on villains and plan. Slipping in through her unlocked bedroom window, she went to her bed where she'd tossed her civvie clothes earlier and changed. After she finished, she went back out her window and to the front of her house. Walking in through it, she yelled, "I'm home!"

No one answered. Gwen shrugged to herself, unconcerned. She knew Dad was working and her mom had probably gone to run some errands or see a friend. Heading to the kitchen, she fixed herself a cup of instant coffee and snagged a banana from the fruit bowl before she returned to her bedroom.

She put her snack on her desk before crouching down in front of it to pull open the largest drawer on the bottom, Feeling past the loose-leaf pages and errant pens she kept in the drawer, she reached the back of it and wedged her pinky in the little notch at the bottom of it and pulled. Instantly, the back popped out and revealed a couple of folders and a notebook. Taking them out, she flipped through the notebook until she was on her entry of the Tinkerer. He was one of the few villains she actually had a pretty decent amount of info on. He didn't seem quite as concerned as some about hiding his identity. Gwen chalked it up to him being a cocky pre-teen. Turning to the folder next, she opened it and pulled out a couple of articles she'd torn out of her dad's newspapers and photos she'd found and printed off the internet.

Sitting down in her desk chair, she crossed her legs and put down the articles in exchange for her coffee. Sipping it, she considered what she knew and didn't about the Tinkerer.

Gwen just knew he had to live in one of the burbs outside the city. Where else would he have room to build all of his hunks of junk? She also felt quite confident his family was one with a lot of money because, again, he needed _ room _ to build his stuff. Gwen also felt pretty confident he had parents who were pretty absentee because of work. Sometimes, she would run into Tinkerer for six weekends in a row causing havoc and then he would drop off the face of the earth for two or three.

Unpeeling her banana, Gwen bit into it and looked a little more critically at a picture she had of the Tinkerer from her dad's newspaper. Slowly, she moved her attention to other pictures she had. They were of students at robotics competitions from the last year. Maybe she was putting too much weight on some of the smaller comments the Tinkerer had made over the last few months, but she felt pretty confident that if he was yelling at her about how some middle school's robots were more of a challenge to beat than her, he had to be on a team for his middle school.

Putting aside one picture, she thought back to what Peter had told her about his own Tinkerer.

The way Peter described his was a man on the wrong side of seventy. It also seemed in Peter's 'verse the guy made most of his money and notoriety by building stuff for _ other _ villains, but he still had his own schemes he ran from time to time to fund his personal projects. Since he'd gotten older and a little less quick in the last couple of years, Peter had managed to not only capture and hold him long enough for police to book him, but found out his name too. It was Phineas Mason. Gwen didn't know if her own would have the same name here, seeing as he was a kid (and who in the world would saddle their kid with a name like _ Phineas _in today's age?), but she kept an eye open all the same for a mention of one when looking at webpages for robot competitions and clubs.

Gwen was pulled away from her research when her Goober chirped. Curious, she got up from her desk and went to her suit, still out on her bed, and pulled it from the secret pocket she kept it in while out being Spider-Woman. Looking at it, she saw it was Miles was calling her. Answering the call, she watched the Goober project Miles face for her to see.

His image grinned. "Hey," he greeted.

She smiled back at him. "Hey yourself," she said.

"So, I know you're probably busy—"

"—You don't know the _ half _ of it—"

"—But I was wondering if you could help me out for a day or two? I've been trying to figure out how to stop this lady that's been breaking into banks and stealing stuff from vaults but every time I almost get her, she slips away."

Gwen found herself sighing. God, did she wish she could go help Miles out with something so basic. But right now she had the Prowler depending on her. "Sorry, you should give Peter or Noir a call maybe," she told Miles. She bit her lip and looked away from her friend. "I'm kind of in the thick of fixing something…"

Miles nodded. "Sure, no problem," he said. He laughed a little. It sounded a bit forced and more than a little awkward to her ears. "It's just… It's been a while," he stammered.

"It has," Gwen agreed empathetically. She _ did _want to see Miles. Soon, too. Trying to make Miles feel better about her rejection, she started to promise, "I swear, once I turn Aaron back—"

"_ Turn Aaron back _?" Miles asked, loud and alarmed, cutting off the rest of what she was going to say.

Gwen winced. What had she been _ thinking_? She should have never said his name. Now she had Miles worried about something he absolutely could not help her (or the Prowler) out of. "He's fine!" she assured Miles. "Relatively speaking, anyway," she added under her breath.

Miles did not look the least bit convinced by her panicked platitude. "Oh yeah? What he get turned into?" he asked.

She pinched the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes a moment. When she opened them, she admitted, feeling a little silly as she said it, "A thirteen-year-old."

For a moment, Miles's image just stared at her, stunned. Then, he said, "Send me a picture."

Gwen wrinkled her nose. "_That's _ your first response to finding out your alter-uncle is _ thirteen_?"

Miles ran a hand over the top of his head and giggled, sheepish. "Sorry," he said. "It's just… Woah. Like, I believe you, but I need to see a picture for it to be _real_. You get me?"

Gwen exhaled. She did get it. They saw a lot of wild stuff as Spiders, but she was willing to bet this incident would end up being one of their collective's weirdest. "Okay," she said. "I'll send you one or two if I get a chance to take any."

"Thanks!" he chirped.

"Hey, Miles?" Gwen asked.

"Yeah?"

Gwen studied her friend for a brief moment. "How much do you know about your Tinkerer?" she questioned.

"Uh…" Miles said, looking away from her. "Nothing you charge him with sticks because he has connections high up in the Government?"

Propping her chin on her hand, Gwen grinned. Well, that was interesting. Could her Tinkerer have a parent that worked for the government? "Do you know anything else?" she questioned.

Miles glitched out of view a moment before reappearing with a pile of papers and stuff partly in view where they were sticking up in front of his face. "Hang on," he said. "Let me get back to you. Aunt May gave me all of Peter's notes a few months ago."

She grinned, excited. Maybe figuring out who the Tinkerer was wasn't going to be as difficult as she worried it would be when she first sat down to look at her research. "Yeah," she replied. "I don't mind waiting."

"I'll call you back soon," said Miles, his image smiling at her.

Gwen nodded. "Yep." Then, as a bit of an afterthought, she called, "Miles?"

"Yeah?" he asked, eyes big and curious.

She felt her chest warm at the sight of her friend. It was really sweet of him to put aside his own problem to help her out with hers. "Thanks for dropping everything for me," she said.

Miles looked a little embarrassed at her gratitude. "It's not a problem," he assured her. "Um, see you soon," he said.

"Bye," she concluded before ending the call. She looked back at her research then. Maybe Miles would come up with something useful, but maybe he wouldn't. Sighing, she started sorting through pictures again, looking for the Tinkerer's ugly, smug smirk among the dozens of kids in the pictures from the city's latest robotics competition.

* * *

**Here's the third chapter :) As you can see, it involves some more Jeff and Aaron, but we also got a bit of Gwen and Miles! **

**Thank you very much for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

_Downgrade_

* * *

At the sound of the doorbell, Jeff looked at his brother on the other side of the couch and said, "That must be Miles."

Aaron turned off the TV, which they'd been watching since they came back from the store, and said, "I'll wait here?"

Jeff nodded. "That's not a bad idea, I can tell him the story and then 'introduce' you two."

"Okay," Aaron said, bobbing his head in agreement. "Just remember, I can hear everything you say in here."

Jeff rolled his eyes. What exactly did Aaron think he was going to tell Miles that would reflect poorly on him? That he'd been crying on and off about his parent in the hospital and to give him a big hug to help him feel better? Actually, that didn't sound like a half-bad idea. It'd sure as Hell be funny for _ him_. "Right," he drawled. Getting up, Jeff went and answered the front door.

"Dad!" Miles exclaimed at the sight of him. Jeff leaned forward to cup a hand on the back of Miles's head and draw him against his side.

"Hey, kiddo!" he returned, just as upbeat, "how was Aaliyah's?"

"Good!" Miles answered, beaming.

Aaliyah's mom, a petite Guatemalan woman named Valeria, told Jeff, "Miles was great, he and Aaliyah had a blast helping to bake cupcakes for Mateo's birthday."

He smiled at the woman. "Good, I'm glad they had fun," he replied. Letting his hand drift down from Miles's head to his shoulder, Jeff said, "Thank you for dropping him off, I really appreciate it."

She waved away his thanks. "Oh, it's no problem," she assured him, "I had some errands to do this way today anyway."

Jeff nodded politely. "Thanks again for having him, we'll have to set up another playdate soon," he said.

"You're welcome, Jefferson," Valeria replied, smiling, which showed the gap between her two front teeth. "We'll give you a call to find a good day for the kids to play again," she said.

"Great," he said. "Bye, have a nice day!" he called as she began down the steps and he started to close the door.

"You too," Valeria returned, turning her head to look back and lifting a hand.

After he closed the door, Jeff nudged Miles to stand in front of him and crouched down to his height. Meeting his curious son's gaze, he said, "So, Miles, I have a bit of a surprise for you."

Interest sparked in the little boy's eyes and he cocked his head. "Really? What kind of surprise?" he asked.

Jeff smirked to himself. "_Weeelll_…" he said, dragging out the word to compound Miles's anticipation.

Miles huffed and crossed his arms across his chest. "Da-ad!" he complained.

He laughed. "Aight, aight," said Jeff, putting up one hand to signal for Miles to calm down. "We're having one of my coworker's son stay with us a little while. My buddy is sick in the hospital and his son is just a bit too young to stay home on his own overnight," he explained. Then, leaning in, he whispered to Miles in a conspiratorial tone, "Just between you and me, it's got him a little upset. If you want to try and sneak him a hug later, I won't say anything."

His son giggled. "Okay!" he agreed. Bouncing a little, he questioned in rapid succession, What's his name? How old is he?" Jeff began to answer, but Miles's eyes grew wide and he cried, "Oh! Oh! Does he like Spider-Woman?"

Jeff laughed and put a hand on top of Miles's head to try and quell his enthusiasm. This wasn't exactly the first time they'd had a kid stay overnight, but it had been a while since the last time. "One question at a time, kiddo!" he said. Miles's vibrating slowed down a little and he smiled at him. Jeff began, "His name is Aaron—"

"—Like Uncle Aaron—?"

"—Yes! And he's thirteen," he finished.

"Does he like Spider-Woman?" Miles asked again, expression solemn.

Amused and more than a little exasperated, Jeff was going to answer in the affirmative for Aaron (he had to, he _ worked _with her), when his brother's voice filled the hall.

"Yep, I do, most of the time," he answered.

Jeff watched his son gasp and spin around. When he saw Aaron, he darted over and said, "Hi! I'm Miles."

"Hey, Miles," greeted Aaron, though he was looking at Jeff, a barely concealed smirk on his lips.

"Have you ever seen Spider-Woman?" asked Miles. "She saved me from getting squashed by a Taxi and now she swings by and waves at me at recess sometimes."

"She's swinging around in the middle of _ school days _?" he said, looking less than pleased even as he imbued his voice with an impressive amount of enthusiasm.

Miles didn't seem bothered by the dichotomy and said, "Uh-huh!"

Jeff's interest was piqued, however, and he pierced Aaron with a probing eye. "You seem surprised by that," he remarked

Aaron looked away and gave a harsh shrug of his shoulders. "It's nothin'," he told Jeff.

He felt his eyebrows jump high on his forehead. Jeff was _ very _ sure it was not nothing, but if Aaron wanted to let it drop for now, he would do that for him. "If you say so…" he drawled.

"I do," Aaron replied, voice firm and leaving no room for anymore questions.

"Right," Jeff said. The air turning a little awkward after the abrupt end to _ that _conversation, Jeff cleared his throat. Putting on a smile for his son, he announced, "So! Who wants to help me with dinner? I was thinking pork chops."

Miles threw up a hand. "I like those!" he cheered. "Can we have tater tots with them?"

Jeff felt his smile turn real as he answered, "Yes, if you promise to eat the greens I'll be cooking too."

The little boy wrinkled his nose. "Ugh," he grumbled. "Fine!"

He chuckled and walked over to the two. Putting one hand on the back of Aaron's neck and the other on top of his son's head, he started to usher the two into the kitchen. "Great, come on you two. Aaron, I'll let you help Miles with the tater tots and then you can chop the greens while he goes to find his homework," he paused to send a pointed look down at his son. "Which we'll be doing right after dinner."

Miles looked up at him and whined, "It's Saturday, Dad!"

Jeff, more than used to this argument, answered, "Which means you won't have to do it tomorrow."

"I bet Aaron doesn't do his homework on Saturdays," Miles grumbled with a pout.

"Of course he does!" Jeff replied. He looked at his brother and tightened his grip ever so slightly. "Don't you, Aaron?"

"Uh," he stammered. Realizing it was not just Jeff who was looking at him, but Miles, he said, "Yeah! Yeah, I do usually."

"See?" Jeff told Miles.

His son was unphased. "Are you doing it _ this _Saturday?" he demanded, leaning around Jeff to get a better look at Aaron.

His brother looked up at him, pleading for help. "Ah, well…" he replied.

Before Jeff could jump in and come up with some kind of story about Aaron being so studious he did it _ yesterday_, Miles began to jump and point at him. "You're not!" he crowed, "he's not doing _ his _homework!" Tearing himself away from Jeff's hand, Miles crossed his arms and shook his head wildly. "I don't wanna do mine! I wanna play with Aaron!" he yelled.

Jeff frowned. "Miles…" he said in warning.

Aaron tapped Jeff's arm lightly and he looked at his brother with a raised eyebrow. What did he want? Wasn't it more than obvious Jeff was trying to deal with his tantruming son? Aaron lowered his eyes and asked in a voice far quieter than Jeff was familiar with, "Is putting it off till tomorrow really a big deal?"

He studied his brother a moment. Aaron didn't look up, he just fidgeted with the sleeves of his sweatshirt. Jeff found himself sighing. No, he supposed it wasn't really a big deal if Miles did it today or tomorrow. There'd be hundreds of Saturdays after this one to instill diligence in Miles. How many Saturdays would Miles have to play with his uncle? And _ like this_? This was probably Miles's only chance. "No, I guess not this once," he relented.

Aaron relaxed almost instantaneously. Looking over at Miles, he said, "You hear that, kid? No homework till tomorrow."

"Yay!" Miles cheered, jumping up and down in place.

Jeff chuckled. "Come on, let's go get dinner cooked," he told the pair. "Rio will be home in no time."

-o-O-o-

Dish of greens in hand, Aaron turned away from the stove just in time to see Rio come into the kitchen. She was still in her scrub bottoms, though, it seemed she'd changed top for a sweatshirt at some point. "Rio," he greeted neutrally.

Her eyes fixed on him. In a whisper, she said, "Aaron?" Eyes large and fascinated, she approached him and when she was in spitting distance, reached out and took his face in her hands. Aaron gritted his teeth and let her stroke her thumb down his cheek."Oh, look at you, _ Papí_!" she murmured. Chuckling, she let him go and remarked, "The Tinkerer really got you good, didn't he?"

Aaron clutched the dish of greens closer to him, feeling guilty. Jeff had said he didn't mind him being here for a bit, but that didn't mean Rio felt the same way. "Don't worry," he assured her. "Spider-Woman thinks we'll have this fixed in a couple of days max."

Rio grinned and patted his head. "I'm not," she said, "hosting you a few days is no problem."

He couldn't help himself. Anxious, he asked, "And longer?"

The woman tapped her chin and looked away from him, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Well, I think we'd have to make a few adjustments," she commented. Returning her gaze to him, she smiled and told Aaron, "but it would fine."

He released a breath he hardly knew he was holding. "Thanks," he said.

Rio's smile grew tender and she patted his shoulder. "You're family, Aaron. Me and Jeff are always going to try and do right by you."

Aaron fixed his eyes on the greens. "Right," he said, blinking rapidly. "Anyway," he continued, looking up at Rio again,"we made pork chops for dinner."

"And what's that?" she asked, pointing at the large ceramic dish in his hands.

He lifted them slightly "The greens," he answered.

"Did you cook it?" Rio asked as she looked into the dish and squinted.

"Mostly," he answered.

Rio grinned. "I bet it's great."

Aaron rolled his eyes. He wasn't a kid. He didn't need platitudes."Okay, Rio," he snarked.

Their attention was drawn to the doorway when Miles's voice piped up, "Aaron can you get me jui— Mom!"

"_Mijo_!" Rio returned, turning and opening her arms to her son. Happily Miles threw himself in them, accepting not only a hug, but a loud kiss on his cheek too.

Laughing, Miles pulled away from her and wrapped one of his hands around Rio's. "You're home just in time, Mom," he said, "Dad just finished the pork chops and I put out the plates."

"_Muy bien_," praised Rio. Her eyes then trained on Miles's other hand, which held a plastic cup with the logo for the Knicks on it. "I see you have your cup!" Rio said, "Did you want juice?"

"Yes, please!" Miles replied, holding it up for her.

Taking it, Rio turned to him and asked, "Can I get anything for you, Aaron?"

"Whatever Miles's having is fine," he replied.

"Sure," agreed Rio as she turned away to go and open the fridge.

Taking it as his cue to go put the greens on the table, Aaron walked into the dining room where Jeff was dishing out food onto the plates Miles put out. "Rio's home," he told his brother.

Jeff nodded and took the greens from Aaron. "I heard," he said as he started to add them to everyone's plates.

Taking a seat in front of the plate next to Mile's, Aaron watched his brother finish serving the greens and sit down himself. In the kitchen, he could hear Miles and Rio talking and laughing. Jeff started to cut up his dinner and Aaron realized it would probably be a minute or two before Rio and Miles came to sit down with them. Aaron looked at his dinner and debated picking up his own fork and knife and starting on dinner, but realized he couldn't. He felt inexplicably uncomfortable. Everything was going just too well.

After their first couple of hours together, Jeff had stopped staring and he didn't even do so much as a double-take when Aaron spoke anymore. Rio hadn't even reacted too strongly at the sight of him. She'd just wanted a closer look (like Jeff) after her first glimpse of him.

Jeff, who had seemed to notice his staring, raised an eyebrow. "There a problem?" he asked.

"The two of you are taking this pretty well," he said.

His brother smiled. "I'd like to say our training kicked in," he said. 'Buuut it might just be crazy shit is going on all the time these days and we're desensitized," he teased.

Aaron snorted. "You're telling _ me_."

"It _ is _weird," Jeff admitted, shifting a little in his seat and averting his gaze. "We have Miles to think about, though. It's important we act like you're just a coworker's kid and everything is perfectly normal for his sake."

"So you are freaking out?" Aaron asked.

Jeff sighed. "Yes, just quietly," he answered. "Aren't you?"

Aaron looked to his plate. "This will be fixed in no time."

"That's not an answer," Jeff chided.

He huffed. "…Yes," he admitted.

"That's okay," his brother said. "You _ are _ the one who's thirteen."

"Uh-huh," Aaron grumbled, stabbing his pork chop.

"Oof, what did that pork chop do to you, Aaron?" Rio called as she walked into the dining room, Miles trailing behind her. Smiling at him, she put down a cup of juice in front of him. "I hope you like fruit punch," she said, "it's Miles's favorite."

He reached for the cup and brought it close to him. "I like it fine," he replied.

Rio gave the top of his head a lingering pat before taking a seat. Once in front of her own dinner, she looked to her husband and asked, "How was your day off?"

Taking a sip of his fruit punch, Aaron settled back in his seat and watched his brother, curious to see what he would say. He was sure it was gonna be _ good_.

* * *

**And Miles and Rio have seen Aaron now! How did you like the chapter?**

**Thank you for reading and merry Christmas everyone!**


	5. Chapter 5

_Downgrade_

* * *

Somewhere by his head, Aaron's Goober started to beep. Aaron groaned and squeezed his eyes closed even tighter. He couldn't be entirely sure what time it was, but he knew it was still much too late (early?) for Gwen to be calling him. If she found out who the damn Tinkerer was, he was perfectly fine with her sitting on it until a reasonable hour. When his phone quieted only to start a new round of beeping a minute later, Aaron opened his eyes. Reaching up onto the table where he put the Goober when he went to sleep some hours ago, he grabbed it and pulled it down in front of his face and answered the call. Immediately, it projected Gwen's face for him to see. None too happy, especially because her face was smirking, he demanded, "What?"

Gwen's smile ran from her face. "Wow, that's a nice way to say hello," she huffed only for alarm to take over her features. "Wait, oh shit, sorry dude," she said before glitching out of view and a little digital alarm clock appearing in her place. "I didn't realize it's two-forty in the morning."

Scrubbing the sleep from his eyes, he said, "Yeah, it's late. Anyway, I'm up now. What's happening?"

The hologram glitched again and Gwen's face was once again in view. Expression smug, she told Aaron, "So, I talked with Miles earlier and he had some interesting info for me, turns out the Tinkerer in his 'verse has a niece who works in some undisclosed role for the government and a brother who was in the secret service before that." Gwen's imaged looked down then and her hands came up to tuck her hair behind her ears. "This was good stuff, but not super useful in the end," she explained, distracted. "It's not like they have easily accessible lists of Secret Service employees for normal people to look at," she told Aaron. "Those who I could find names for, none were Masons like Peter's, which, I guess I was expecting to be the case anyway. Our Tinkerer's family might have somebody working in the agency, but I didn't really believe they'd be in a PR or top executive role—"

Aaron cut the teenager off. "—Gwen, do you actually have anything _ good _to tell me?" he demanded, having grown irritated during her story. He didn't want to hear about things that didn't matter to them, especially after she'd woken him in the middle of the night.

Gwen didn't look the least bit sorry at his words and, instead, scowled. "Yes!" she snapped. "If you'd just let me finish my story!"

Aaron sighed. "Skip it, kid," he said, " all I wanna know is what caused you to wake me at _ two _in the morning."

Gwen wrinkled her nose and fell silent a moment as she deliberated. Finally, her hologram shrugged her shoulders and muttered, "Ugh, fine." After another minute to gather her thoughts, she told Aaron, "I guess the super summarized version is after Miles info didn't help me, I gave Porker a call to see if he had anything useful that when combined with what I know from Miles and Peter I could use to find our Tinkerer's civilian identity. You'll be very happy to know he did. His, which is a _ goat_, did I mention? Retired to Eastchester after his kid died getting caught up in some other villain's attack in the city. After I learned _ that, _I looked up all the schools in Eastchester and started going through their Websites and Facebook pages."

"And?" Aaron prompted when Gwen stopped talking.

She laughed and smirked at him. "Isn't it obvious? I found him! I found our Tinkerer." She disappeared from view and a grainy image of a computer screen came into view. It was hard to tell over the hologram, but Aaron thought the screen held a picture of a bunch of kids. Over the Goober, he heard Gwen say, "I spotted his ugly little mug in a photo from a pep rally at this middle school, he was sitting on some bleachers with other kids. I plan to go out to his school and hang around it and try and figure his name and maybe follow him home Monday afternoon."

Aaron felt the knot that had been in his stomach since the start of this uncoil a little. "That's dope, Gwen," he said, "but his gun's going to be charged by then."

Face reappearing, she nodded, looking just a little dejected. "Yeah, I know," she replied. "We're on plan B now, sorry, Aaron." Eyes big and anxious she said, "I'm coordinating with Porker and Peter right now to see who can come with me."

"That's good, Gwen," he assured her. "I appreciate you're working hard to fix this." Of course, now that he knew what she was doing, he did have some concerns. He scrubbed the back of his neck and said in a measured tone, "I don't wanna be a dick here, but Porker? He's a pig. That might draw attention you don't want when you're trying to tail that lil'shit Tinkerer."

Gwen pursed her lips and her eyes told him she thought he was an idiot. He resisted the urge to bristle as she told him, "It's not like I'd have him hanging around the entrance _ with _me." She waved a hand. "'Sides, Peter isn't really a great choice either. People, especially in places outside the city, get twitchy when old guys hang around outside schools."

Aaron blinked. Was that true? He didn't remember too many making any kind of commotion about the people who hung around outside of his as a kid. Frowning, he said, "Yeah? No one gave a shit who was waitin' outside my schools as a kid."

Gwen seemed gobsmacked. "That's— You know what? Your childhood _ sucked_, Aaron," she told him with true vehemence.

He looked away, uncomfortable. Aaron didn't disagree, but he'd never thought of _ that _as being a reason why it was a pile of crap before. "It was a different place and time," he tried to deflect.

Gwen just scoffed. "You're tellin' me fifteen years ago was _ so different _ no one cared if sus guys were sitting outside middle and elementary schools?"

No, they didn't. At least not where he lived. Aaron told Gwen as much. "In the projects? Yeah, no one gave one shit."

"Sorry, dude," she replied, sounding dejected.

"Nah, it ain't your fault, Gwen. It's just the way it was," Aaron tried to explain. She shouldn't feel badly his childhood was awful, it wasn't like she was at fault for it. She hadn't even been born. Besides, he didn't think he _or _Jeff were doing too bad, in spite of the early struggles they had to overcome to be who they were now. In a twisted way, he was almost glad things had gone how they had or he'd not be who he was today. Aaron hadn't always liked himself, but now… Now he kind of felt proud of himself. His nephew looked up to both sides of him and while Jeff still disapproved, it was because he was doing the right thing the wrong way, not the wrong thing a bad way.

"Still," insisted Gwen. Aaron narrowed his eyes at her to shut her up and she seemed to understand as she exhaled and cast her eyes away from the Goober's camera. "So, anyway, I'm sorry I can't do anything to fix you till Monday…" she said.

Aaron shook his head. "Psh, don't worry, 'kay?" he said, "Jeff and Rio will just be glad to hear there is an end date to this."

"Sick of you already, are they?" she teased.

He smirked. "Yep."

"…You are joking, right?" she asked after a beat, uncertainty creeping into her voice.

Aaron rolled his eyes."Yeah, Gwen, I'm joking. My brother don't hate me _ that _much."

"I'm sure he doesn't at all!" Gwen argued only to drop her head and groan. When she lifted her face again, she was rubbing her forehead and grumbled, "Look, I know this sucks balls. I just want to be sure you're comfortable there."

"I am," he said, truly meaning it too. It wasn't bad at Jeff's. His brother was doing what he could to put Aaron at ease and refraining from being too parent-y. "Don't worry," he said. "Figure out your plan of attack with the other spiders and give me a call if you need me."

Gwen nodded. "All right. See you, Aaron," she concluded.

"See ya, Gwen," he echoed before ending the call. Once alone in the darkness of his brother and Rio's home again, he cursed. There would be no more sleep for him tonight. Sighing, he groped around on the coffee table until he found the television remote. It would be shitty late-night TV for him until the morning, unfortunately.

-o-O-o-

Steadily demolishing a large bowl of Colonel Crunch, Aaron watched as his brother shuffled into the kitchen, yawning into the crook of his arm. He continued to eat as Jeff went to the room's coffee machine and pulled some mugs from the tree of them beside it.

"I dunno if it's right to ask this, given your current age, but you want some?" Jeff asked, holding up a mug for him to consider.

Aaron tilted his head in thought for a second before he nodded. After his call from Gwen, he'd gotten maybe an hour or two of sleep from five to not quite seven. He was still pretty tired and a cup of coffee would probably carry him through the morning and most of the afternoon. "Yeah," he answered.

Jeff nodded and turned toward the counter fully, taking two more mugs off the tree. As his brother poured the coffee into the mug, he asked, "So, how'd you sleep?"

Aaron put another spoonful of Colonel Crunch in his mouth and chewed it thoroughly. After he swallowed the food, he said to Jeff, "Spider-Woman called about three."

For a brief moment, his brother stilled. "Oh?" he said.

"Uh-huh," Aaron answered, kicking at the rungs of the chair he was sitting in. "She figured out where the Tinkerer is a student and plans to follow him home from school and ambush him."

Jeff turned around then, holding two mugs of coffee, one in each hand. Walking over to Aaron, he put one down on the table in front of him and asked, "With help?"

"Thanks," Aaron said, pulling the mug nearer. "And yup."

Jeff stared at him over the mug still in his hand. "And you're not upset she's gonna be waiting outside the school while classes are in session?" he questioned, one eyebrow raised.

Aaron wrinkled his nose. "Of course not, this is extenuating circumstances. She _ needs _to be there if you don't wanna have me sleeping on your couch for the next three years."

His brother frowned and pointed a finger at him. "You'd be staying here until you're _ legal _again, just so you know," Jeff warned him. A hand then going to his face, he rubbed his chin and looked to the side. "But I was curious," he admitted. "You didn't like hearing about her waving at Miles at recess."

Aaron pressed his lips together into an unamused line. Jeff had picked up more than he cared for about Gwen.

"She a student herself?" Jeff asked when Aaron refused to speak.

He glared at his brother, trying to convince his brother to drop the subject with his look alone.

Jeff, not the least bit cowed, just smirked. "Still glaring at me," he said as if it was all a joke. "I'll take that as a yes." Turning serious, he leaned in and asked, "Aaron, how old is she?"

He crossed his arms and turned his head. "Does it matter?" he demanded. "No matter what I say, she's gonna be Spider-Woman."

Jeff was quiet for a time before saying, "You know a lot about her, don't you?"

"_Not _because of anything I did," Aaron assured his brother. "She's told me what she wants me to know when she wants."

"So she wears the pants, huh?" Jeff questioned, chuckling.

"What?" Aaron sputtered. Scowling, he grumbled, "That's nasty Jeff."

His brother rolled his eyes. "I meant in your partnership, Aaron," he said. "_You're _the nasty one.

Aaron stuck out his tongue.

Jeff took a sip of his coffee before muttering, "Nice, Aaron. Real mature."

"What are you boys up to?" asked Rio, walking into the room.

"Hey, Rio," Aaron called as he went to pick up his spoon and eat the last of his bowl of cereal.

"Baby," Jeff greeted, going to the counter and picking up the last mug of coffee, which he handed to Rio. "Here," he said, before leaning down to kiss the side of her head.

"Mh, hi," she replied, accepting the cup with a small, warm smile.

Jeff put an arm around her waist and brought her flush against his side as he explained, "We were just talking about Spider-Woman. She called me to say she'd have the laser back Monday."

"I should be fixed a day or two afterward probably," Aaron added in between bites of cereal.

Rio nodded. "That's some good news," she said. Chuckling, she remarked, "Miles will be disappointed. I think he was hoping you'd be around a little longer."

Aaron pursed his lips. "Well, I guess I could make the next day or two nice… He's got school tomorrow, but I could take him to the park today?"

"That sounds like a _ brillante idea_," gushed Rio. "He'd love that."

"Only for a couple of hours," Jeff broke in, stern. "He has homework to do."

"Wasn't he supposed to do it yesterday?" Rio asked, frowning up at her husband.

Jeff rubbed the back of his neck. "Well…"

"It's my fault," Aaron cut in before his brother could get in trouble with Rio. "I didn't know that was a thing with you guys and when he started interrogating me about when I do homework, he began to kick up a fuss when he realized I wouldn't be doing any like him."

Rio continued to glower at her husband as she said, "It isn't your fault." She sighed. "But I guess _ one _weekend where his homework days are switched around isn't a big deal…"

Aaron relaxed and so did Jeff. Smiling, he said to Rio, "I can take him after he's had some breakfast. That'll leave plenty of time for you guys to figure out homework."

She returned his grin. "That's a perfect plan," she agreed.

-o-O-o-

"Bye, Rio!" Aaron called as him and Miles shuffled out the front door.

Rio, watching them as they finished zipping up their jackets (his borrowed from Jeff), said, "Keep an eye on the time, Aaron. I expect you two home by lunch."

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He'd never kept Miles out later than Rio or Jeff wanted when he was an adult. Being thirteen wasn't going to change that. "Yeah, Rio," he agreed not entirely able to hide the annoyance in his tone.

She started to narrow her eyes, before shaking her head and sighing. "Have a nice time you two!" she yelled after them.

"We will!" assured Miles, which appeared to be the magic words, as Rio shut and locked the door, leaving him and Miles alone on the stoop of the Davis-Morales home.

Reaching over to pull the collar of Miles's coat out of it, Aaron asked after he finished, "You ready?"

Miles bobbed his head. "Yep!"

"Tight," said Aaron. Taking lead, he guided them down the steps and down the block in the direction of the neighborhood park.

As they strolled down the street, enjoying the sun on their faces and hunching their shoulders against the cold's bite, Miles turned his head and looked up at Aaron. "Hey, Aaron?" he asked.

"Yeah?" he returned, glancing at the kid, before turning his attention back to the sidewalk in front of him.

"Can I ask why your dad is in the hospital?" Miles questioned. "Mom said it isn't polite, but I wanna know."

He chuckled. "It really isn't," agreed Aaron. Really, he expected Rio had said that to keep their story from becoming too elaborate for him or her and Jeff to remember, but it wouldn't be a bad thing if Miles learned not to ask too many questions about potentially touchy subjects anyway. Smirking at his nephew, he said, "But I'll tell you. He's needed surgery on his appendix. He'll be home in another day or two."

Miles blinked. "Oh," he replied. Frowning slightly, he tilted his head and remarked, "My classmate Sam got his adenoids removed in October and was outta school for like a whole week." Looking up at Aaron, he asked, "Is an appendix like an adenoid?"

He nodded. They were sort of similar, he supposed. Both could be removed and were when they started to make people sick. "Sort of," Aaron agreed. He pointed at his stomach and explained, "but it's by your stomach, not your throat."

"Weird," Miles said, wrinkling his nose.

Aaron shrugged. He didn't really think so, but didn't seem much of a reason to disagree either. "Yeah, guess so," he said.

Miles took his hand when they reached the crosswalk and in silence, they walked across the street together. Once on the other side, Miles continued to hold onto his hand. For a moment, Aaron wondered if he shouldn't shake his nephew off. Technically, he was supposed to be a stranger to Miles. And a thirteen-year-old boy. They didn't like or want to hold hands with a little kid. Stranger or no. He decided against it in the end. Miles didn't know older kids weren't cool with holding hands longer than strictly necessary.

"Can I try your Heelies when we get to the park?" asked Miles after a while.

He snorted. "Naw, they're too big for you."

Miles pouted. "Mom won't let me have a pair."

"That doesn't change anything, kid," Aaron told him with a roll of his eyes. Miles began to droop a little and Aaron felt a little bad. Rubbing his chin with his free hand, he suggested, "Maybe… I could give you a ride on my back, though?" Miles was looking a little interested in this suggestion and Aaron hurried to cement the feeling by saying, "It's not exactly the same, I know, but it'd still be fun."

"Okay!" agreed the boy, grinning.

He smiled back at the kid. "Sweet."

"After, we should play on the tire swing!" Miles suggested, swinging their hands. "That's the _ best _."

He nodded agreeably. Playgrounds had been kind of different in the eighties. There was a lot of asphalt to scrape yourself up on and a lot of metal climbing structures that burned to touch on hot days. He'd preferred playing basketball with his school's hoop-less hoop and tetherball when there was an inflated ball to use. "I'll take your word for it," he said.

Miles laughed and started to tug on him, the park now in sight. "Let's go!" he urged.

Aaron smothered a grin and allowed himself to be pulled along. No matter what they did, he was going to enjoy his time at the park. Spending time with Miles was always a treat.

* * *

**Happy 2020! How did you like this chapter? Things are going to be happening on the Tinkerer front soon! Who are you hoping Gwen'll have accompanying her? Porker or Peter?**

**Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

_Downgrade_

* * *

"Whooo!" Miles cheered as Aaron raced them down the park path back in the direction of the playground.

Grinning, Aaron reached one hand across his middle to grab ahold of Miles's legs and told him, "Okay, kid, hold tight, I'm gonna spin us."

His nephew gave an excited gasp and cinched his hold around Aaron's neck even tighter. "I'm ready," he declared.

Aaron nodded as best he could with a pair of skinny arms limiting the motion of his neck and head pivoted mid-glide to swing the two of them in a circle. As they spun around once, then twice, and finally a third time much to Miles's ecstatic laughter, the face of a static park-goer to the right of the path became increasingly familiar until he recognized them altogether. Bringing their spinning to a halt, Aaron glowered at Gwen. She was smirking at him, eyes sparkling with amusement.

"Sup?" she greeted.

Aaron was going to ask her what the Hell she was doing at the park when Miles started to squirm on his back, yelling in his ear, "Gwen!"

He winced at the volume. "You don't need to yell every—" he stopped abruptly in his complaint as Miles had let go of Aaron's neck and was trying to climb down him. Alarmed, he said, "Whoah, hold on, kid, lemme—"

"Gotcha!" Gwen declared, grabbing ahold of Miles before the two of them could fall over and lowering him to the grass as Aaron righted himself. "You need to be a little more patient, Miles," Gwen chided as she ran a hand over the top of his head. "You almost ended up with your brain scrambled."

Feeling suitably guilty from the scolding, Miles looked to his toes and mumbled, "Sorry."

"It's okay," Gwen assured Miles, smiling again. "You know better now, right?" she asked.

Miles nodded rapidly, which drew a chuckle from Gwen before she turned her face in Aaron's direction. "You all right?" she questioned.

He was okay if a little peeved. He still didn't know why Gwen was at the park or found them in it. It wasn't exactly a small one. "Fine," he answered.

"Gwen!" Miles called, drawing their attention back to the kid. Moving around her, Miles came to stand next to Aaron. "This is Aaron," he introduced to her. "He's staying with us for a little bit while his dad's in the hospital."

The girl smirked at Aaron. "I know," she said and Aaron felt a wave of horror come over him. Oh, she was going to fuck them over, wasn't she? "I know him," she declared, causing Aaron to close his eyes and groan in defeat. They were going to be in so much trouble now.

Miles blinked owlishly. "You do?" he said.

"Yeah!" Gwen replied animatedly, ignoring Aaron's dagger-glare entirely

"How?" asked Miles.

Gwen furrowed her brows and she looked to Aaron, a slight look of panic in her eyes. He just continued to glare at her. She'd gotten herself into this mess, she could get herself out, as far as he was concerned now. Gwen bit her lip. "He's, um, got a brother at my school?" she stammered.

Aaron wanted to cuss the girl out right then, but he'd hardly bared his teeth at her before Miles was looking at him. "You didn't say you had a brother," he said, "how come he isn't staying with us too?"

"He's with his mom right now," said Aaron when Gwen failed to answer.

This brought a confused furrow to Miles's brow. "She didn't let you stay with them?"

Aaron went stiff. "Um," he mumbled. While he could think of several plausible reasons for why some lady wouldn't want the son of her ex staying in her home (even if he was the brother of _ her _son), Aaron didn't think he should spin together a story for Miles with one of them. That wasn't the kind of stuff a seven-year-old needed on his mind. Plus, he was pretty sure it would piss off Jeff and Rio too. They sure as Hell weren't going to want to spend their Sunday afternoon trying to break down the nuances of adult relationships into something a little kid could understand.

Gwen cleared her throat. "Uh, why don't we do something together?" she suggested. Her eyes flickered to the playground not fifteen feet away. "You like the tire swings, right, Miles?"

"Tires swings!" Miles yelled in excitement, forgetting for the moment his question. Bouncing in place, he gushed, "I _ love _them!"

"Then let's go," said Gwen reaching down for Miles's hand, who happily gave it to her.

-O-

It was Gwen's turn to twist the tire swing this time to spin Miles. Watching her wind up the little boy's swing, Aaron crossed arms when she finally released it. As she fell into place next to him, he continued their conversation by grumbling, "A _ brother_, Gwen?"

Gwen bit her lip. "Sorry!" she apologized. "I panicked."

Aaron rolled his eyes. _ That _ was obvious to him, but it didn't change anything. They might have effectively ended the conversation for now, but Miles would start to talk about it again sooner rather than later. "He's going to have a _ million _questions on the way back to Jeff and Rio's," Aaron huffed.

Gwen sighed. "If it matters, I take sole blame and you can hold this over me for _ months _to come," she offered.

Unappeased, he complained, "He's going to talk about seeing you at the park too." Glaring at her out of the corner of his eye, he added, "He'll also say you _ know _me to Jeff and Rio."

Gwen stiffened. "Shit," she swore.

Aaron just nodded. Shit was right. Worst of all, unless they thought of something soon, it was going to hit the fan before the day was out. He sure hoped Gwen didn't mind her parents knowing she was Spider-Woman too much because when Jeff figured it out, Aaron was sure he'd be giving her dad a ring in no time.

"Can you let me off?" Miles yelled as his swing continued to turn round and round. Leaning out from the swing, he told them, "I'm getting dizzy."

"Sorry, kid," Aaron replied as he stepped forward to grab the chains and stop the tire swing. "We shouldn't have spun you so much," he said.

Miles only climbed out of the swing and turned his attention to the play structure a dozen steps away. He pointed over and said, "I wanna go jump on the swinging bridge."

"Yeah, no problem," Aaron told him. Gesturing to the swing, he said, "Have at it, Miles."

The little boy smiled. "Thanks, Aaron!" he said before darting off toward it.

At a more sedate pace, Aaron and Gwen followed Miles. As they walked over to stand in front of the bridge, Gwen asked, "Is there any way we can fix this?"

Aaron turned slightly toward Gwen and crossed his arms."Short of using some memory erasing helmet on him? You better hope something way more interesting happens and that he forgets to talk about it."

Gwen's eyes sparked. Jutting her thumb over her shoulder, she smirked at him and said, "I got my suit in the bag. I could change into it and swing out as Spider-Woman."

Aaron mulled over the idea in his mind. Miles was becoming quite familiar with Spider-Woman, but a quick hello from her probably would put their earlier conversation out of his mind for a good while if not leave it all but forgotten. He nodded at Gwen to go. "It's worth a shot," he told her.

Gwen's smirk went a little wider in relief and she took a step away and toward the bathrooms when a voice from behind called out, "Excuse me!"

Both Aaron and Gwen twisted around to see a young brunette woman quickly approaching. When she was stood close enough for Aaron to make out the ever so faint scars from a couple of lip piercings on her face, he said, bemused, "Uh, hi?"

Still smiling, she pointed over at Miles who was hopping up and down on the bridge with a couple of other laughing little boys. "That kid, the one up there on the bridge, is he your brother?" she asked.

"Nephew," Aaron answered on instinct only to internally cuss himself out for it a split second later.

She nodded. "Cute," she said. Then, with a big sigh and fluttering eyes, she focused her gaze on him and Gwen and remarked, "But I gotta say, not _ half _as cute as you two!" Grinning at Gwen, she gushed, "It's so nice of you to help him with babysitting his nephew." She sighed heavily then and with a pout complained to Aaron, "I wish my boyfriend was as sweet as your girlfriend—"

Aaron went stiff at the mistake and he could tell Gwen was tense from it too. Over the woman, he tried to explain they were _ not _a couple. "—We're not—" But she didn't let the fact he'd started to speak stop her and barreled on.

" —Of course, Abner and Flynn are just some kids I nanny for when their parents are out of town," she chattered, waving a flippant hand. "But I wish _my _boyfriend would help me when I take them to the park." Hand on her cheek she told them, "Abner's not difficult, but Flynn's all over the place."

Aaron stayed silent after she stopped talking, unsure of what to say or do. Should he still try to correct her about him and Gwen? Just let it go? He looked at Gwen out of the corner of his eye to try and gauge her feelings on the issue. She gave a slight shake of her head and he dipped his chin in acknowledgment. So they weren't going to bother. He guessed that was okay. It wasn't like they would ever see this woman again after today.

"Which one is which?" asked Gwen, taking over the conversation for the two of them as she turned her attention to the playground.

Stepping up next to Gwen, the young woman said, "See the little brown-haired one in the grey T chasing that Asian girl there? That's Flynn." Cupping her hands around her mouth, she shouted out to the little boy, "Flynn! Flynn! Leave her alone she's panting!"

The little boy in question slowed in chasing the chubby Asian girl he'd been playing with and gave the woman a rather mean glare for such a young kid. Aaron was pretty impressed. He had to be the same age as Miles and he sure as Hell knew Miles couldn't manage a look like that right now.

Gwen nodded. "And this…" she trailed off, cringing ever so slightly. "Abner?" she questioned in an uncertain tone like she wasn't sure she had heard the young woman right earlier.

The woman didn't seem bothered by Gwen's tone. In fact, she seemed sympathetic to it. "It's an awful name, isn't it?" she asked.

Gwen and he looked away. It sure wasn't a _ good _ name in Aaron's book and probably not Gwen's either, but they both had enough sense _ not _to say that aloud. Seeming to understand what they were feeling, the woman laughed and waved her hands around. "No! No, it's okay," she assured. "I know it's what you're thinking. I do too." She sighed and cast her gaze out to the playground once more. "Not that I've ever said anything. Poor kid doesn't need it rubbed in his face that his mom was probably still a little drugged up when it came time to name him." Gesturing to further down the play structure from Miles and to beneath it, she told them, "He's over there. Abner is the sullen one playing on the Gameboy under the structure."

Aaron squinted a little, to try to to make out the kid where he was hidden in the shade and behind one of those firemen poles. He looked a bit old for the playground. Maybe close to the age he was now? Aaron had to figure it was his little brother who wanted to play at the park and he got brought along as he wasn't quite old enough to be left alone at home yet. He was interrupted in his observations when Gwen jabbed him in the side and hissed:

"Aaron!"

"What?" he muttered back, glancing at her in annoyance.

Eyes wide she exclaimed in a loud whisper, "That's the Tinkerer!"

Immediately, he snapped his attention back to the boy. He _ did _ have red hair like the Tinkerer, but Aaron had never gotten a real good look at the Tinkerer while fighting with him. Nor had he spent the past day or so studying his face to try and find his civilian identity. "You fuckin' with me?" he asked Gwen after a moment. He didn't think she'd kid about something like this, but for him to be _ here _ in the park _ now_…

"No!" she snapped.

Aaron sneered at her. "Well say somethin' to her!" he growled back at Gwen.

Gwen, taking his advice, turned to the nanny and asked, "Hey, is their last name Mason?"

She gaped at Gwen, surprised. "How did you know!" she asked after her shock faded.

Gwen bit her lip and Aaron felt panic start to course through him. She was going to fuck this up like she had wit Miles, wasn't she?

"Miles… my nephew… I think knows Flynn from school," Aaron blurted before Gwen could say something worse. He scratched the back of his head and looked back to his nephew, who was currently sitting on the bridge as it was being bounced by a couple of the other boys. "Or maybe an afterschool activity? Basketball?"

"Yeah!" agreed Gwen, snapping her fingers. "It's totally basketball," she said. "Do you think you could give us their parents' phone number?" she asked Abner Mason's nanny. "I'm sure Miles's parents would appreciate having it so they could finally set up a playdate for the two."

The nanny tapped her chin and turned a considering eye on Miles. "Basketball, huh?" she said. "Now that I'm looking at him, Miles _ does _look a bit familiar," she remarked. "Who'd have guessed!" she chuckled and shook her head. Then, reaching into her purse, she pulled out one of those slider cells and began to type on the keyboard. "And yeah, you can have it, no problem," she told them. Holding out her phone, with the contact info for the Masons' other in plain view for them to see, she said, "here it is."

"Thanks," replied Gwen, taking out her phone and using its shitty camera to snap a couple of photos of the screen. "I really appreciate it."

The nanny grinned. "You're welcome!"

Seeing now was the time to run to avoid bungling things, Aaron put a hand on Gwen's arm and said to the young woman, "If you'd 'cuse us, gotta get the kid home now. His mom wants him back for lunch."

"Yeah, of course," she replied, smiling once again. As they moved toward the bridge Miles was playing on, she waved and called, "It was nice talking to you!"

"You too!" Gwen yelled back, waving for the both of them.

"Miles!" Aaron shouted, getting the boy's attention. Gesturing for his nephew to come, he said, "Come on, it's time to go."

"Aw, do we have to?" Miles whined, sliding through the gap between the bridge and the bridge's rails to join them.

He nodded and reached for the boy's hands. "Rio'll whoop our asses if we ain't back in time for lunch, kid."

"Ooh! You're not supposed to say that!" Miles gasped, eyes wide.

Aaron scoffed. Usually, he did try not to swear too much around Miles. Mostly because he was little, but right now he was just anxious to get out of here. He didn't know what exactly Gwen would be able to do with her new info about the Tinkerer, but Aaron wanted to give her the chance to use it so this could be fixed as soon as possible. Being thirteen again was unsettling and he wanted it over sooner rather than later if he could have it that way. "Like you don't say stuff you ain't supposed to when your mom isn't around?" he demanded with a roll of his eyes.

"Aaron!" Gwen chided in his ears as Miles looked to his toes in silent guilt.

"Yeah, thought so," said Aaron. It was then he caught the sound of snickering. Lowering his gaze, he looked beneath the bridge and saw that the Tinkerer had become a troll beneath it since he last saw the brat. "What you snickering at?" he demanded.

Eyes big and face white, the Tinkerer cried, "Nothing!"

Unable to help himself, Aaron bared his teeth at the kid. "Not so mighty now, are you?"

The Tinkerer, Abner, seemed more surprised by his venom than scared by it and mumbled, "What…?"

"C'mon, Aaron, let's go!" Gwen snapped, grabbing his wrist and yanking him and, in turn, Miles away from the structure.

"Yeah, yeah," grumbled Aaron, letting her pull them away from the playground and to the path that'd take them out of the park.

Once they were walking away from the playground, Miles let go of Aaron's hand to skip around to Gwen's side. There, he began to tug on her shirt as he chanted, "Gwen! Gwen!"

"What is it, kiddo?" she asked, amused.

"You should come home for lunch with us," Miles said with a wide, hopeful smile.

Gwen winced. "Aw, I'd love to," she said, "but I was just passing through the park."

"Really?" Miles said, pouting.

Aaron watched her pat the top of Miles's head. "Sorry, Miles." Drooping visibly at the apology, Miles skipping came to an abrupt end and he started to drag his feet. Gwen sighed. "Oh, don't look so sad, maybe you'll see one of your favorite heroes on the way home!"

"You think so?" Miles asked, dubious.

Gwen smiled and nodded. "Yeah!" she assured, glancing at Aaron, who nodded in return. A visit from Spider-Woman was just was Miles needed.

-o-O-o-

After he helped Rio clean up from lunch, Aaron decided to go sit on the steps that lead into the backyard. Jeff was busy trying to get Miles to sit down to do his homework and didn't need him around, distracting Miles. Putting his back to the house's door, Aaron reached into the pocket of his borrowed jacket and pulled out his Goober. Accessing the texting function, he sent a message to Gwen:

_ What r u going to do with his family's #? _

Not a minute later, Gwen replied:

_ W/it and his full name, find him, hopefully. Maybe go stealth steal his gun tomorrow w/Porker and Peter. _

Aaron felt a smile start to tug at his lips. That was _ great _news. Though, he knew stealing it was only the first step in getting him back to normal. The second step was figuring out how it worked and the third step would be learning how to make it age him forward instead of backward before they could get to the fourth and final step of aging him back to his rightful twenty-eight years. Looking for something to say to Gwen, he re-read her message and realized she'd said something interesting. Typing quickly, he shot off to her a one-word reply of:

_ Both?_

Gwen returned after a beat:

_ Peter + Porkwe said they wanted 2 help. I can be the lookout and they'll do the stealing. _

Aaron grinned, pleased. Finally, Gwen was thinking _ smart. _He sent her a message letting her know he approved of what she was going to do:

_ Not a bad plan _.

Gwen replied not five seconds later:

_ I'm so glad u approve. _

Aaron snorted, tone was always a little hard to understand over text, but he was pretty sure Gwen had taken his praise not quite as he intended. Quickly, he wrote to her:

_ Learn 2 take a compliment. _

He almost hit send, but hesitated at the last second. Thinking, he typed a little slower:

_ Tx 4 swinging by as Spider-Woman and waving. Was all Miles talked about at lunch. _

Satisfied with his whole message, he sent it to Gwen.

Gwen answered back after a stretch that just a little long for Aaron:

_ No problem. I'll call u with any updates ltr, k? _

Aaron nodded to himself. He was fine with that. He typed and sent her his last message:

_ K. C u. _

Aaron furrowed his brow when the Goober shook in his hand as he was pocketing it. Pulling it back out, he looked at his messages and saw Gwen replied back one last time:

_ :) _

He smirked and rolled his eyes. Kids today were _ weird_. What was _ that _supposed to mean? Who the Hell ended a _real _conversation with a smile? Aaron kind of wanted to ask Gwen why she thought that was a proper sign-off, but resisted the urge in the end. It didn't matter. Not enough for him to pick a fight with her, anyway.

Putting away the Goober, Aaron stood up and decided he would go back inside. Jeff and Miles were probably absorbed in the kid's homework now. Maybe he'd find Rio in the living room and they could watch TV together for a bit. Or if not, he could take out Jeff's Playstation he saw on one of the TV console's shelves and play one of the games he had until Aaron got a call from Gwen.

* * *

**How did you enjoy Gwen, Aaron, and Miles at the park together? The Tinkerer has a real name now! Is Abner a more awful name than Phineas for a Millennial kid you think? And are you excited that both Peter and Porker might soon be making an appearance to help Gwen steal the laser gun?**

**Thank you for reading!**


	7. Chapter 7

_Downgrade_

* * *

The portal in May's yard now closed, Gwen moved toward the travelers it had brought to her dimension with a smile. She stooped down and gave the smaller of the two a hug. "Porker, dude, it's been _ way _too long!" she exclaimed.

"I know!" he agreed, the eyes of his mask curved with a smile. "Howdy, Gwen."

Next to them, Peter huffed loudly, drawing their attention to him. Unlike Porker, he'd forgone wearing his mask when coming into Gwen's 'verse. She couldn't say she was shocked, Peter fit right in here, among her people, unlike Porker. "And what am I? Chopped liver?" he complained.

She chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Hi to you too, Peter," she greeted, leaning over for a side-hug.

"Thanks," he replied before letting her go.

Still smiling at the two, Gwen gestured for the two to follow her into Aunt May's house and said, "C'mon, I've got lemonade for you guys waiting."

"Excellent," praised Peter. "Aunt May here too?"

She shook her head as she held open the door for Porker and Peter. "No," she answered, "but I texted her what's going on and she gave me permission to ask her neighbor for the spare key."

Now inside, Porker pulled off his mask. "That was very kind of her," he remarked as he clambered into one of the chairs around the kitchen's table.

Joining him, Gwen picked up the pitcher in the middle of the table and poured first Porker a glass, then herself, and finally Peter. "Yeah," she replied. "I'm going to have to figure out a way to repay her. She's really doing us a favor."

"Mine always appreciated a bottle of gin," offered Peter as he sipped his lemonade.

Gwen considered this. She wouldn't be able to buy it (not _ legally_), but it shouldn't stop her from getting her hands on some gin, or whatever she decided to get May. "I'll ask Aaron to get me some when he's himself," she said, a decision reached.

Porker cleared his throat. "So, Gwen, what's the game-plan?" he questioned, bouncing ever so slightly in his seat. Pantomiming swinging a weapon of some kind, he suggested, "Should we swoop in and smack the Tinkerer over the head with a mallet and steal the gun?"

Gwen forced a chuckle and looked away. "Uh, I was thinking something a little stealthier," she said. She hadn't been to Porker's 'verse herself yet, but Peni had and she'd described it as being just like a cartoon. _ Everything _was done to an exaggerated extreme. The cars raced along New York's streets like they were on a race-track there and people (animals) falling in love involved heart-eyes and it could happen several times a day to a person (animal). Gwen couldn't say she was shocked Porker just wanted to go right over to Eastchester and hit the Tinkerer over the head.

"Oh yeah?" Peter said, putting down his half-empty glass of lemonade. Elbows on the table, he leaned in and asked, "How stealthy are we talking?"

"Some breaking and entering without alerting the Tinkerer, his little brother, or nanny," she explained, ticking them off on her fingers as she listed them.

"That all?" Porker said. Pounding one hand, balled into a fist, into the palm of his other, he exclaimed, "Sounds like a piece of pie!"

Gwen bit her lip. In theory, _ yeah_, it did. "It _ might _be," she agreed, "but I don't really have a lot of info about the Tinkerer's home." Reaching for the folder of info she'd printed off at home from her bag swung on the back of her chair, she pulled it out and splayed it across the table for Peter and Porker to see. "I have the address, it's in Eastchester," she told them, pointing at the print-off of Abner Mason's Facebook page. "And a basic idea of the layout of it from some pictures that his parents and he posted to Facebook over the past couple of years," she continued, gesturing to some photos and a hand-drawn blueprint of the house she'd made from what information she'd had. "I don't know where he builds his stuff or is keeping the gun, though," she finished, turning her palms upward in a helpless gesture.

Eyes scanning the print-outs and her notes, Peter asked, "We don't have to steal anything today, right? We could just do some ret-con and come back the next day when they're all at school or whatever."

She blinked. "That's… That sounds like a really good idea, Peter," she said slowly, surprised by the calm reasoning of it. Going in when no one was home would be way better than trying to go in today while the Tinkerer, his little brother, and nanny were there to get in the way. Yet… She sighed. "Aaron's going to be disappointed, I think," she said, "he's not exactly thrilled with being thirteen."

Peter snorted. "I bet," he replied. "It'd be one thing being sixteen again, but thirteen?" He pulled a face. "Yikes."

"I, for one, wouldn't mind being a piglet!" Porker offered, drawing both Gwen and Peter's gaze to him. He was almost smiling as he told them, "I've never been one, you see. Before I became Spider-Ham I was a spider living in my May's basement laboratory."

"So that's why you volunteered to help, huh?" teased Peter. "You're looking to get a face full of the laser."

"I'm hurt!" Porker decried and with a dramatic flourish, he put one hand over where his heart would be as a fat, lone tear leaked from one of his eyes. "I can't believe you'd think so lowly of me. I'm here to help our lovely Gwen, just like you," he sniffed pathetically. Gwen found herself snickering into her hand. As much as he was hamming it up, Porker wasn't _ that _offended.

Peter rolled his eyes skyward, just as aware as Gwen he wasn't actually upset. "Uh-huh," Peter replied in a bland tone, not playing in to Porker's theatrics.

Porker began to make his lip shake and Gwen decided to cut in before the two could really start to upset each other. "Hey! Um, would you like to see a picture of Aaron and Miles?" she asked, reaching for her phone. "I snuck a snapshot yesterday when he was playing with Miles at the park…"

Peter's attention trained on Gwen. "You've got a pic?" he demanded, leaning over to look past her shoulder and at her phone. "Yeah, kid, show me this. We might need to share it with everybody for blackmailing in the future…"

She puffed out her cheeks, irritated. "It's not embarrassing!" she rebuked as she flipped her phone open and pulled the picture up for Peter and Porker to see. In it, Aaron had Miles on his back and was leaned back on his heels, in the midst of spinning in a circle. "They're just having fun," she explained. "It was nice."

"You're right, they do appear to be having grand old time," remarked Porker as he squinted at the picture.

"Cute," Peter said after giving the picture his own twice-over. "He know you got that?"

Gwen looked away. "Well…"

"When he's himself again, you should print and frame it," Porker said in a surprisingly solemn way as he finally sat back down in his seat.

She grinned. She figured there was a fifty-fifty chance Aaron would either love a framed photo or hate it. "That's a great idea!" she said. Either reaction would be sure to entertain.

-o-O-o-

Jeff watched his brother walk back into the living room. He'd left ten minutes ago for "the bathroom". Really, Jeff thought he'd heard that little gadget of Aaron's buzz with some sort of call or message. Five minutes ago, Rio had taken Miles upstairs to get him ready for bed. Thankfully, Miles hadn't complained too much, just insisted he wanted to come back down to say goodnight to Aaron before he was tucked in. Rio and him had been happy enough to agree.

"Sup?" he said to Aaron.

His brother, a frown on his face, said, "I got a call from Spider-Woman."

Jeff nodded. He'd been right. "Oh?" he said. "Not a good call? You look annoyed," he commented, pointing to his own forehead to indicate that Aaron's was scrunched.

Almost instantaneously, Aaron's face smoothed into a neutral expression. "It wasn't a bad call, just not as good as it could have been," he said.

Jeff leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs and letting his hands fall between his open legs. "Yeah?" he prompted. "What was it about?"

"Spider-Woman figured out where the Tinkerer's actual home is today, but she's not gonna steal the gun till he's at school tomorrow," he explained as he dropped himself into the room's armchair.

Jeff dipped his chin. Truthfully, it sounded like Spider-Woman and Aaron's plan was the same as it had been this morning. Just missing the step of her waiting outside the Tinkerer's school. Which was good. It meant his little brother would (hopefully) be thirteen a couple of less hours than he had to be. If he had to guess why it seemed to upset Aaron, Jeff assumed it had to feel like the opposite to Aaron. They knew where the Tinkerer's home was, they could, theoretically, steal the gun _ now_, but instead, he had to wait twelve or so hours longer than necessary for Spider-Woman to take it.

Slowly, Jeff said, "Not that I approve of burglary, but that sounds like a good plan to me. No one will be home when she takes it."

His brother sighed. "It is," agreed Aaron, "there's less of a chance of things going south. I just…" he trailed off, gaze falling to his hands. "I'm sick of being a kid," he whispered, hands curling into fists.

"I get you, Aaron," Jeff said, attempting to sympathize. "I know I would be pissed if I was in your situation. But…" Aaron looked up when he stopped talking and Jeff met his brother's gaze. "Has this really been so bad?" he asked.

Aaron's face twisted with annoyance. "It hasn't been _ good_!" he snapped. Making a frustrated noise, Aaron ran a hand over the top of his head and said, "Look, I get you've done what you can to make this not suck and I appreciate it. But it does, okay? I feel… _ powerless _ and I _ hate _it."

Jeff got up from the couch and went to crouch in front of his brother. Putting a hand on Aaron's knee, he said, "Hey, you ain't powerless, okay?" he said. "Maybe you can't go out and do your thing as the Prowler right now, but that doesn't mean you can't do nothing." His brother scoffed and crossed his legs, effectively throwing off Jeff's hand. He didn't let it deter him. "You still got more experience, more knowledge than any kid," he said. "I know it's mostly toward the villain side of the biz, but that ain't useless. Spider-Woman, she can still use that. I understand I don't know her like you do, but she seems to respect you from what little I've seen. I think you could call her on that gadget of yours right now and figure out how to rig that or some other gizmo you two must have laying around somewhere so you can watch her and advise her as she breaks into the Tinkerer's house. You could do it. _ I know_, Aaron, _ I know _ that would benefit her."

Aaron was looking at him by the end of his speech, a thoughtfulness to his gaze. "She probably don't need me to be in her ear, advising her, but I'll give her a call," he said.

He pushed down the smile that wanted to cross his lips, afraid Aaron would find it patronizing. "Sounds good," Jeff replied.

Aaron stood up and started to say, "I'll go—"

"Aaron!" Miles yelled, running into the room. "I have to go to bed now,"

Jeff watched his brother smile at Miles and reach out to hug him. Happily, his son went into Aaron's arms, accepting the embrace. "So soon?" teased Aaron.

"It's Sunday," said Miles. "I hafta go to bed early 'cause of school."

Aaron nodded like this was interesting. "I see," he said. "Guess I'll see you in the morning, huh?"

"Yeah!" Miles agreed, grinning. Turning to him then, Miles darted over to Jeff. "Night dad," he said.

Jeff leaned forward and gave Miles a loud kiss on the cheek. "See you in the morning, kiddo," he said.

With that, Miles ran off again to join Rio who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs for them. She smiled at the two of them before taking Miles's hand. "Come on, _ papí_," she said, leading him away.

When they were alone again, Aaron cleared his throat, drawing Jeff's attention to him. "I'm gonna go call her," he said. "And Jeff? Thanks."

He smiled at his brother. "No problem, bro."

* * *

**How did you enjoy this chapter? Porker and Peter are going to help Gwen!**

**Thanks so much for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

_Downgrade_

* * *

Gwen was laid belly-down on the roof of the house across the street from the Tinkerer's home. Porker was next to her and Peter was hiding beneath a small thicket of tall pine trees in the front yard of the house next to the Tinkerer's home. "Are they gone already you think?" Peter asked over the goober the more time dragged on. "He and his brother are going to be late for school at the rate they're going."

She pulled her goober closer to her mouth at the question. "Maybe he has a doctor appointment or something," offered Gwen.

That would be quite unlucky for us," remarked Porker. "Someone is bound to notice us soon!" he complained. Gwen had to agree. This was not going as easily as she would have liked.

"Just keep your eye on the prize," advised Aaron over the goober. "No one's gonna look at you as long as you keep still."

Porker grumbled something intelligible next to her, disregarded Aaron's advice, and scooted away from Gwen slightly. She looked at him and touched the goober where she had it pinned to her chest. The night before, Aaron had called her up asking if there was a way for him to be here remotely. She'd agreed without much thought. He _ was _a thief once. If finding the gun got difficult or tricky, having him on com and video would mean he could quickly and easily help them out.

Unfortunately, Porker seemed to _ really _have a problem with him. She had to assume Porker and his Prowler had a far more antagonist relationship than Gwen and Aaron ever did when he was a bad guy. Gwen felt this was a shame for Porker. She actually really liked her Aaron as a person. He had an undeniable charm to him.

"Annnd she's gone with the Tinkerer and his brother!" Peter called suddenly over the goober. Attention snapping back to the Tinkerer's home she watched a sedan finish pulling into the street and drive away. Once it'd turned a corner, leaving their sight, Peter said, "Let's go!"

Almost in tandem Gwen and Porker swung themselves down from the house and went to join Peter where he was stood in front of the path that led to the Tinkerer's front door. His hands were on his hips as he looked down at the two of them. "How are we getting in?" he asked. "They've probably got an alarm system and some cameras, right?"

Gwen wrinkled her nose behind her mask. "Cameras?" she echoed. What kind of normal person had cameras in their house? "This isn't a museum," she said.

Peter just shrugged at her. "More than museums use them," he told her, "in my 'verse, they're almost everywhere these days."

"Oh yeah?" replied Gwen, interest piqued. She looked at their anthropomorphic friend. "How about yours, Spider-Ham?"

He shook his head. "No, we don't have them," he answered. He tilted his head slightly and tapped his chin with a finger. "We don't really have computers or cellphones either, actually."

"Huh. That's interesting," she replied. "Think they could show up there at some point?" asked Gwen.

The eyes of Porker's mask curved into a smile as he declared in a cheery tone, "Nothing is impossible!"

"Well, I guess we should just keep an eye out for a home security system, huh?" Peter broke in, eyes scanning the Tinkerer's house. "There probably will be one since this is such a nice neighborhood…"

"Don't worry if they do," Aaron said, voice a bit gritty over the Goober. "I've disabled upward a thousand in my career." Almost boastful, he told them, "I can tell you the fastest way to take it out."

"Isn't that what a hero likes to hear," reproached Porker from around Gwen's hip.

Gwen was going to say something mildly scolding to Porker, but Aaron shot back loud and fast. "Just 'cause I learned it being a villain don't mean you have to sound so mad about it," he said. "I'm using it for the right reasons now, ain't I?"

"You are!" agreed Gwen, glaring down at Porker. "And we're really thankful, aren't we?"

Porker wilted under her stare and sighed. "Right," he said, "sorry, Prowler."

Peter, who'd strode ahead when she and Porker started to bicker, was stood next to the front door, waiting for them with his arms hanging loosely at his side. As Gwen and Porker joined him, he shifted his attention from them to the goober pinned to Gwen's suit and said to Aaron, "You're up, bud. We've got an alarm system I could use some of your expertise to disable it."

Aaron sounded almost pleased as he began, "Aight, so this what you gotta do…"

-O-

"Where should we start looking?" asked Porker once they stepped into the foyer of the Tinkerer's home. It was underwhelming in Gwen's opinion. Too neat, too white, and cold with its gray-stone tiles.

"His bedroom?" suggested Gwen after poking her head out the nearest doorway to see a staircase in the adjacent room.

"Try any sheds or garages too," suggested Aaron. "A basement might work too."

"Should we split up?" asked Peter as he brushed past Gwen to stand in the hall, one hand on the banister of the staircase and ankles crossed.

"I'll look for a basement!" enthused Porker as he bounced into the hallway and then right out into what was probably the living room on the other side of it.

Peter looked up the staircase. "I guess I'll head for his room," he said.

Gwen nodded in agreement. "I'll give the yard and garage a try."

"Great," replied Peter before he swung around the banister and disappeared up the stairs to the second floor of the home.

Gwen looked down at her goober. "So, do you think the garage would be a good start or would the yard be better?" she asked Aaron.

"Try the garage, it's three-car," replied Aaron after a beat.

Gwen hummed her reply and wandered down the hallway and into what she quickly found was the kitchen. Like the small foyer, she found it off puttingly sterile. At least it wasn't squeaky clean. There were cereal bowls in the sink, some errant papers on the breakfast bar, and someone had left the orange juice out on the counter beside the finger-print smudged fridge. Once Gwen looked, she quickly realized there was a solid door in the room. Going to it, she opened it and quickly found it led into the home's garage. After Aaron's remark, she was unsurprised to see that the spot where a third car or yard things should be was blocked from her view with a wall of pegboards. "Oh, yup, look at that," she said, "the third part's sectioned off." Walking over, she pushed aside a makeshift door made of a plastic shower curtain covered in frogs. Walking into the area, Gwen began to inspect it. It looked like a little workshop. There were tools, knuts, bolts, and pieces of machinery scattered on multiple surfaces.

"Yeah, it's gotta be in here," Aaron piped up from the Goober. "Go to the far wall," he advised. "Start feelin' around and stuff to see if there's some secret switch that'll flip that pegboard lining it to reveal some secret projects. I don't believe for a _ second _he leaves his villain stuff laying about for his parents to see."

Following his directions, Gwen went to the back wall and started to feel all over. She shifted and lifted tools and shelves and even tugged a bit at some of the boards. Nothing interesting happened, however. She sighed and said, "I'm not finding anything…"

"Keep looking," insisted Aaron. "See that tool cabinet there?" he said. Gwen looked up and in the direction where she knew the goober was pointed. She did see the cabinet. It was a dark green. "Check it out for false bottoms in the drawers and the back too," instructed Aaron. "I hide my stuff in my wardrobe behind the drawers."

"You do?" said Gwen, grinning. "Interesting…"

He huffed at her curiosity and grumbled, "Stay the fuck away from my place, Spider-Woman."

She rolled her eyes even though there was no way Aaron could see her. "Dude, I was teasing," she complained. Then, quieter, she muttered, "You're kind of uptight today…"

"Sorry for wanting to get you outta here fast and in one piece!" snapped Aaron, Goober crackling slightly from the pitch his voice had reached.

"Okay! Okay!" relented Gwen, shoulders tense. " Jeeze…" she murmured.

Gwen's final bit of half-hearted searching was interrupted by Peter's voice cutting through the garage. "Hey, kid, you having any luck in here?" he called. "There's nothing in his or his little brother's bedrooms and Spider-Ham is just about done with the basement."

Gwen put down the wrench she'd been messing with and walked out of the little workship and into the wider garage. "No, nothing…" she answered Peter.

"Hey!" Aaron exclaimed. "Look up, would you?"

"Sure," agreed Gwen, tilting her head up to stare at the ceiling. "What are we looking for?" she asked, squinting her eyes.

"That's it!" Aaron declared with clear excitement. "Go look in that crawl space over there above his parents' cars," he told her.

Gwen glanced over at Peter who shrugged at her. Well. She couldn't see any reason to say _ no_. "Okay," agreed Gwen. Climbing on top of a land rover parked beneath the door to the crawl space, Gwen pushed the little door aside and poked her head inside. "Oh my God…" she breathed at what she saw. There were lights and gizmos flashing and beeping galore. The Tinkerer even had a couple of screens there showing different places in the house and in New York.

"Is there stuff up there?" asked Aaron.

"That little shit's turned this into a mini-workship!" she said to him. Clambering fully into the crawl-space, she kept herself bent at a slightly awkward angle as she walked around the space. "He's got to have another workshop he goes to because there's absolutely no way he builds any of those robots he's so fond of sicking on Brooklyn in here," she remarked as she looked curiously at one of the screens showing places of New York. Was that her high school on the screen right now?

"Okay," said Aaron. "Now, focus. Find out if the gun's here." Ripping her gaze away from the screen, she started to look at other things in the room. "Do you see it, Spider-Woman?" he asked.

Pushing around some tech on a little table, she muttered, "Lemme dig around some…"

"How you doin' kid?" Peter yelled up at her from the garage below.

Gwen was going to say something else, but her eyes suddenly fell on the gun and she couldn't help but shriek in delight.

"Found it, did you?" questioned Peter, half-laughing.

"Yeah," she called, picking it up and following the wires attached to it to a strange sort of socket in the wall of the craw space. "He's got it plugged into this contraption on the wall."

"D'you want me or Ham to come there and help you bring it down?" Peter asked her.

"No, it's fine!" she yelled back. Then, turning her head down, she asked Aaron, "Hey, Prowler, do you see anything on here that looks like an alarm that'll go off if I try to take it?"

"Nah," he answered after a beat.

"Here I go then," she muttered before reaching over and unplugging the gun. "I got it!" she yelled down the open hatch to the crawlspace once the gun weighed her palms down.

"Good," returned Peter, hands appearing beneath the opening. "Let's get outta here, kid."

Gwen slipped out of the hole and into Peter's strong hands. Letting him lower her, she replied, "Yeah, let's go."

"We should cover our tracks!" Porker broke in. "He will know we were here."

"How would you recommend we do that, Spider-Ham?" questioned Peter, looking around the garage with interest.

"Weelll…" drawled Porker, "I don't carry just a mallet on my pig."

Gwen leaned in, interested. "What else do you have?" she asked, mind already coming up with a myriad of possibilities. Each one was more fantastical than the last one.

"I have these!" exclaimed Porker, his eyes curved with a smile, holding up his hands for Gwen and Peter to see. She stepped back with a gasp. Those were _ bombs _he was holding!

Peter began to shake his head wildly. "Nope," he said, "Nuh-huh. Put those away right now."

Porker lowered his bomb-filled hands with no small amount of hesitation. Looking back up at them, he started, "But—"

—No bombs!" cut in Peter, louder and more forceful.

"…Okay," relented Porker in a sulky tone.

Over the goober, Aaron suggested, "A fire might do the trick."

"I don't like the idea of us destroying his parents' property," said Peter, arms crossing over his chest.

"Look," Aaron said, words sharps, "you wanna hide we figured out who he is and stole the gun or what?"

Peter let his head tip forward as he sighed. When he looked back up, his eyes were on Gwen. "You know what?" he said, "Gwen, this is your call." Peter's eyes were uncomfortably intense as he asked, "What do you want to do?"

"I… I think he might be right, Spider-Man," said Gwen, biting her lip beneath her mask and not looking at Porker for the time being.

Peter sighed again and nodded. "You wouldn't happen to have a blow torch on you, would you Spider-Ham?" he inquired.

"As a matter of fact, I do," answered Porker, reaching into his pocket and pulling one out.

Gwen couldn't help herself. "How much can you carry in those pockets!" she exclaimed as she looked the gun over, attempting and failing to wrap her mind around the physics that allowed her cartoon pig friend to hide such a thing on his person.

"As much as I need," he replied. "No more, no less."

"That is so not an answer, but, you know what? It's fine," Gwen said. Waving her hands up toward the ceiling, she declared, "Let's just torch this place."

Porker didn't need to be told twice. Soon, the garage was in flames. The smoke from it was on their heels as they fled the home altogether with the gun. As they swung back to May's home, Gwen felt accomplished. They'd send the gun over to Peni and in no time at all, they'd have Aaron all grown-up again.

-O-

Gwen wasn't surprised at all to find Aaron in May's living room, sitting on her couch, playing solitaire on his cell phone. She sighed at the sight. "What are you doing here?" she asked as she pulled off her mask and waited for Peter and Porker to filter into the house.

He grinned at her. "What?" he teased. "Am I that offensive?"

She just rolled her eyes and shut the front door. Walking over to Aaron, she gave him the gun to look at. "Here it is," she said. "We'll send it to Peni here in a minute to figure out and maybe adjust so it'll age you up instead of down."

Aaron inspected it with interest. His hands running up and down it, he remarked, "This had to be a radar gun once."

"Yeah," agreed Gwen. Then, a thought coming to her, she asked, "You let your brother know you were meeting up with me, right?"

Aaron rolled his eyes. "Yeah," he answered in an unsurprisingly moody tone. "I ain't tryin' to give him a heart attack or have him cruise the streets lookin' for me all afternoon."

Gwen decided to ignore his attitude in favor of taking the gun back and handing it to Porker. "Say hi to Peni, won't you?" she asked Porker.

He nodded. "Of course!" Walking back toward the door, he let himself out. However, not before yelling, "Make sure to take some more pictures for Noir and Peni!"

With that, it was Gwen, Peter, and Aaron alone. Aaron was glaring at her and Peter in the aftermath of Porker's words. _"More?"_ he spat. "You took my picture?"

She groaned. "Just one," she admitted. "Mostly just so we could prove this really happened later…"

"Who in their right mind would _doubt _us? This is too batshit to be made-up!" raged Aaron, now on his feet and pacing.

"You gotta admit, Aaron, wanting to have proof that an adult can suddenly be a kid isn't crazy," Peter tried to reason from where he was slumped against the doorway between the hallway and living room.

Aaron, of course, wasn't having any of it. Scowl even darker than before he snapped, "That's crap!"

"Aaron…" Gwen tried, reaching out toward the boy as he passed her.

He threw a hand up at her, blocking her attempt to comfort him. "Don't!" he snarled.

Gwen sighed and decided to drop into the armchair right of the couch. She could just tell this was going to be a _ fun _ afternoon. Then, as if to further prove her point, the room's window shattered and a second later, a robot arm appeared in the hole.

* * *

**How did you like the chapter? Did I do justice to Porker this chapter?**

**Thank you for reading!**


	9. Chapter 9

_Downgrade_

* * *

Unsurprisingly, once the robot had its arm through the window, it started to snap its pincers at all of them, revealing that there was a camera in its palm. Gwen gasped aloud at this as Aaron began to cuss. The camera quickly locked on Aaron, the most vulnerable looking of the three of them and sped toward him.

"Aaron!" Gwen screamed, leaping forward and knocking him down to the ground. As she covered him with the bulk of her body, she twisted her front around to shoot off a round of webbing, covering the robot arm's camera. In response to its sudden blinding, it paused for all of a moment before zipping back out of the broken window. Rolling off Aaron, Gwen said, "You need to get out of here."

Now in a crouch beside her, he sputtered, "What?"

Gwen had no time for his stupidity because there were _ two _new robot arms now coming through the window and the front door was rattling like something was hammering at it, trying to break it into splinters. Dragging herself and Aaron to their feet, Gwen gave him a hard shove toward the patio door. If they got lucky, he could jump Aunt May's fence and run away to somewhere safe. "Go, go, go!" she urged him.

"No!" he refused, feet spaced apart and hands in fists at his side. "I can help," he insisted.

Peter, who'd taken over distracting the robot arms, ordered, "_ Both _of you scram!" Dodging one of the robot arms trying to vivisect him, he said, "I got this."

"Pe— Spider-Man, you can't fight them on your own!" argued Gwen.

Between dodging the arms' pincers and twisting them around each other, Peter grunted, "Oh, yes I can." Turning his head around to look at the two of them, he commanded, "Spider-Woman, get the Prowler _ far away _from here right now!"

Gwen wanted to refuse, but she knew Peter was right. Aaron wasn't going to leave on his own. He was too stubborn for that and the only way he would be safe was if she got him away from Aunt May's home. Exhaling loudly, she grabbed Aaron's arm and yanked it and him over her shoulder. "Ugh, fine!" she agreed as she poised herself to escape through the patio door.

Aaron, who'd taken to fighting her the moment she put her hand on him, shouted, "Spider-Woman, don't you—!"

"Sorry, but this is the best for everybody, Prowler," Gwen declared loudly, drowning out the rest of Aaron's words as she took off.

While Gwen got them outside and began to swing them away from the battle, Aaron cussed, "Motherfucker!"

As Gwen swung them down the street, Aaron swearing in her ear, she just focused on getting her fellow vigilante far enough away from the fight he wouldn't be able to rush right back in. After a time, Gwen felt satisfied with the distance she'd covered and let Aaron down. His face was one of pure rage, but Gwen ignored it and said, "Okay, stay here, I gotta go back and help Peter."

"No!" yelled Aaron, grabbing onto her wrist. Shrugging one shoulder, he pulled off the drawstring bag she'd got for him the other day to keep his Prowler stuff in. Holding it up, he said, "I can help you two. I got my claws."

She put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at him. "Aaron, don't make me stick you to that light post over there," she warned.

His nostrils flared and he balled his hands into fists, but before he could say anything, from behind a car to their right, the Tinkerer in his saucer rose up into the air, laughing. "Aaron, huh?" he said, a menacing sneer on his ugly face.

"OhmyGod," whispered Gwen, pivoting to put herself in front of Aaron.

"Shit! Damnit!" Aaron swore. Accusatory, he said, "I thought you had spider instincts."

"I do!" Gwen snapped back at him. "They've just been going crazy since the robot arm went through Aunt May's window!"

The Tinkerer, for his part, had quieted in his laughing and was frowning at Aaron. "You look… Familiar!" he exclaimed, zooming closer and causing Gwen to press herself nearly against Aaron's front to protect him.

Seeing that the Tinkerer seemed less interested in attacking them now that he'd been struck by the familiarity of Aaron, Gwen decided to try something. It would end either very well or very badly. To prepare for the bad outcome, Gwen reached behind herself to grab onto Aaron's wrist in case she needed to throw them to the side to dodge an attack. Squaring her shoulders, she called out to the Tinkerer, "I bet he does! Wanna know something, _ Abner_?" At the use of his civilian name, the Tinkerer gasped and Gwen felt a little thrill of victory start to run through her. "If you don't back off right now and I'm gonna tell your parents you're a peewee super villain!" she threatened.

He stared at her, mouth a yawning hole for long enough that Gwen began to wonder if she shouldn't just grab Aaron and run. However, before she could, he narrowed his eyes and hissed, "I bet you're that girl who was with him at the park!" Pointing at her, he cried, "I could find out who _ you _ are and tell _ your _parents!"

Putting her free hand on her hip, Gwen snapped, "Just you try you little shit!"

"I will!" yelled back the Tinkerer sounding entirely like the annoying twelve-year-old kid he was.

She rolled her eyes. The Tinkerer could _ try_, but Gwen didn't think he was going to have a lot of luck finding her. All he had was Aaron's name and Aaron was supposed to be a grown-up. Gwen didn't think he even _ had _ a Facebook page or anything. As for her, she already had a set plan to edit her existing stuff to make it more private and harder to identify her when she was found. "Great, I'll be waiting," she taunted. Gesturing back toward Aunt May's home, Gwen said, "Now did you hear me the first time? Pack up your toys and _ go_." She reached into her suit's hidden pocket and pulled out her cellphone for the Tinkerer to see. "I will call your mom right now if you don't!"

The Tinkerer tensed. "You wait, Spider-Woman, I'll get you for this!" he warned. "I know it was you who burned down my home-lab!" he said before zipping off in his saucer toward Aunt May's home. Watching, Gwen heard the noises of clanking metal and splintering wood stop altogether. She sighed in relief. The Tinkerer had taken her seriously and called off his assault. Gwen knew this was far from over, however. She'd just started a _ new _battle with the Tinkerer that was going to be a real threat to her (and Aaron's) anonymity. For now, though, while Aaron was vulnerable, he would be safe. Really, Gwen thought that was the best outcome she could have hoped for.

Gwen's attention was snatched away from her worries when, behind her, Aaron murmured, "Jesus, he's got _ more _labs someplace?"

"Are you really surprised?" she asked. "There is no way he built those monstrosities in that tiny attic lab."

He sighed. "Guess you have a point there."

Turning to face Aaron, she said, "Should we head back to Peter and see how he is?"

"Might as well," he replied.

Gwen nodded and turned back around to let Aaron wrap his arms around her neck. Once he was situated, Gwen shot off a thread of webbing and began to swing themselves back the way they came toward Aunt May's home. As they made their way there, Gwen asked, "You think he'll find out who we are any time soon?"

"I don't have any kind of social media presence," said Aaron, confirming her earlier assumption. Then, echoing her thoughts further, he commented, "I'm also pretty confident he doesn't know your name. So. Give it a couple of years."

Gwen felt some of the fear and uncertainty bothering her ebb away. If Aaron felt the same way as her, that meant she'd played her cards right. It was a relief to realize she hadn't made another awful, life-ruining mistake. "I can work with that," she said.

"We're still gonna have to watch out for him," he told her as they landed in front of Aunt May's home and he let go of her.

Meeting Aaron's gaze she nodded. "We will."

"Hey!" called Peter as the front door swung open. "You're back," he said with clear relief in his tone. Gesturing, he explained, ""The robots just kinda… _ left_, for a lack of a better word."

"We know," said Gwen. "I kinda told the Tinkerer to take his robots and go home."

Peter crossed his arms and tilted his head sideways. "And he listened to you?"

Gwen sucked in a breath. She had a feeling Peter wasn't going to approve of what she had to say next. "Yeah," she answered. "He sorta figured out we're the pair of kids he saw at the park when he was just Abner yesterday…"

"He didn't!" exclaimed Peter. "Jesus, Gwen," the man muttered as he ran a hand over the top of his head, tugging at his mask a little.

It was stupid, but shame heated her face. Gwen never liked it when Peter sounded disappointed in her. To try and hide how she felt, Gwen jutted out her chin in a show of defiance. "He doesn't know who either of _ really _are!"

"You realize he's going to become a real thorn in your sides, don't you?" snapped Peter, looking at her with his hands on both his hips.

Before Gwen could answer, Aaron did for both of them. "We do," he affirmed, placing a comforting hand on Gwen's shoulder.

Peter's eyes darted between the two of them before he sighed and slumped in place. "Here's a word of advice for you two," he said, "start looking at how to build a filtration system into your masks. I can almost guarantee a kid like that is going to try and create a knock-out gas so he can incapacitate you so he can study you while you're out."

She nodded. That was actually a really smart idea. Even if the Tinkerer never tried that, someone was going to be bound to try to poison them with something airborne eventually. "Got it," replied Gwen, smiling wide enough to make the eyes of her mask curve upward. "That'll be the first thing I talk to Aunt May about come Thursday when she's back."

Peter straightened out a bit. "Great," he said. "Now, how about we clean this mess up and I'll go buy her a new window, hm? I'm sure your May is a pretty forgiving lady like mine was, but even she is going to be ticked if she sees she's missing a window when she walks through her front door."

Gwen nodded. Peter was right. Aunt May would _ not _be pleased if this was the state of her home when she came back. "Yeah, alright," she agreed. Grabbing Aaron's hand, she gave tugged him to follow her into the home. "I'll show you where the vacuum is so you can take care of the living room while I try and do something about her bushes and lawn."

Aaron groaned. "I could handle the lawn," he said.

She laughed. "Have you _ ever _lived any place with grass?"

"No," he admitted with no small amount of reluctance.

Gwen snorted. "Exactly, so, the living room is _ your _job, kay?"

"Fine," he agreed, scowling.

She rolled her eyes. "Cheer up, would you?" she chided. "We could get a call from Peni and Porker at any moment saying they've reversed the gun and you can be fixed."

Aaron almost immediately perked up. "Guess that's true, ain't it?" he mused. "I'm happy this is almost over."

Gwen pulled up her mask just enough for Aaron to see her grinning teeth. "So am I," she said. As fun as it'd been to see and hang with a thirteen-year-old looking Aaron, she would be _ much _happier once he was the almost thirty-year-old guy he should be. Then, the constant burn of worry in her stomach would let up a little . She wouldn't have to feel like she needed to protect him all of the time anymore either. Aaron at the right age was able to handle himself (and her) just fine.

* * *

**Been a bit, hasn't it? How did you all like this chapter? One more to go!**

**Thank you for reading!**


	10. Chapter 10

_Downgrade_

* * *

When the goober pinged in the middle of helping Rio prepare tamales, Aaron all but threw the spoon he was using to the counter. "Gotta use the bathroom!" he yelled as he sprinted out of the kitchen and for the toilet adjacent to the hallway. Once inside the small, tiled room he locked the door and sat down in the corner of the room farthest from the door. Aaron pulled out the goober and answered the call. Immediately, Gwen's holographic image was projected for him to see. To his relief, her expression was one of excitement.

"Sup, Gwen?" he asked, his own mouth twitching with a smirk.

Image glitching as she bounced in place, Gwen said, "Peni's done it! You'll be yourself in a matter of an hour or two."

A breath he hadn't even known was in him whooshed out instantly at Gwen's words. "Thank the Lord," he praised.

Gwen's image pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as she stared at him, eyes uneasy. "It only took her a day to reverse engineer the gun," she said. "That's pretty impressive, isn't it?"

"More than _ pretty _, Gwen," Aaron assured the teenager. "It's amazing! If it were up to you, me, and May I think I'd be this way for at least another month."

Gwen laughed at this, whatever worries that caught her moments ago now gone. "True."

Aaron rubbed his chin, a thought coming to him. "We should give her somethin'," he said. Mind's eye filling with his gift from Jeff by the door, he asked Gwen, "How d'you think she'd like a pair of Heelies?" Jeff had planned to sell them on his work's swap board, Aaron knew, but he could pay him back just as well. Aaron knew their cost.

Gwen's face scrunched up for a moment before she answered, "…Pretty good, actually. We should definitely have her try them on when she comes to deliver the gun." Face still one of consideration, she added, "Also, we should have a bag of mixed candy on hand as a backup gift."

He nodded. "That's doable," agreed Aaron. Shifting slightly as he began to prepare to get to his feet, he asked, "Can you meet me at the corner shop from Jeff's in fifteen?"

"Yeah," replied Gwen.

He gave her image a short wave. "See you then."

Gwen flashed him a smile. "Yep!" she answered before ending the call.

Re-pocketing his goober, Aaron unlocked the bathroom door walked out into the hallway. Trying to act cool, he walked back into the currently empty kitchen and grabbed his sweatshirt from the chair he tossed it on while he was helping Rio. As he pulled it over his head, he heard someone pad into the room. Once his head was free, he saw it was Jeff and Miles.

His brother was smirking as he remarked, "Rio says you ran off to the bathroom pretty quick there, Aaron."

"Sorry," he replied, "got that call I was waiting for."

"Did your dad get out of the hospital?" asked Miles, tugging at Jeff's shirt to try and get past him and to Aaron.

"He did!" lied Aaron with a wide grin. "I'm gonna meet him and his buddy giving him a ride home down the street in a bit."

Jeff raised an eyebrow at the second half of Aaron's answer as Miles drooped. "Aw," his nephew complained, "you can't spend the rest of the night? We was just gonna eat dinner!"

He offered the kid an apologetic grimace. He'd be down for dinner any other time, but right now… Aaron just wanted to be himself. Not this uncomfortable, ill-fitting version. "Sorry, kiddo," he said.

Miles sighed and bobbed his head. "It's fine," he replied. With a surprising amount of empathy and maturity, he told Aaron, "I'd wanna see Dad if he'd been in the hospital as long as _ yours_."

He stepped forward to rub a hand over the top of Miles's head. Smiling at his nephew, he said, "Thanks, I appreciate that."

"Why don't I walk you down there?" suggested Jeff, looking around the room for his own jacket.

Aaron frowned at his brother. "That's not necessary."

"It's not a problem," insisted Jeff, finding his jacket and putting it on. "C'mon get your shoes."

Aaron bit the inside of his cheek and went to the front door to pull on his Heelies. After he finished, he saw his brother hadn't followed and pulled out his cell phone. While he waited for Jeff, shot off a text to Gwen:

_ Jeff's insisting he walk me to the shop. _

Almost instantly, she replied:

_ I'll wear my suit._

"So, who you messaging now?" Jeff asked as he stepped onto the bottom step of the stairs.

"Spider-Woman," Aaron answered as he looked to his brother's hand and realized he had gotten Aaron the drawstring bag with his Prowler stuff while he was messaging Gwen. Reaching for it, he said, "Thanks."

"You're welcome," replied Jeff as he let Aaron take it and sling it on his back. Crossing his arms then, he said, "Didn't you two just talk?"

"Yeah," replied Aaron. "But she needed to know you were droppin' me off so she could plan right."

His brother's expression soured slightly. "I see."

Aaron rolled his eyes at his clipped tone. "Whatcha expect, Jefferson?" Aaron chided. "She's not gonna wanna chance you seeing her as a civvie and recognizing her."

He sighed as they stepped outside and onto the street. "Yeah, yeah, I get it," he said.

As they began the short trek to the corner shop, Aaron kept his gaze fixed firmly ahead. In a matter of an hour, he would be himself again. It was difficult to stay focused on this, however as he could see from the corner of his eye that Jeff was watching him. Fixing his eyes on a man wearing a baseball cap ahead of them, Aaron tried to occupy his mind with trying to guess where he was going to and why instead of his brother's gaze.

He wasn't allowed to think for long before Jeff asked, drawling, "…So, you got any good memories from this experience?"

Aaron shoved his hands into the pocket of his hoodie and scowled hard at the back of the man in the baseball cap's head. "This was a lame-ass time, Jeff."

Jeff exhaled and slowed his step slightly. Aaron ignored the clear sign of dejection and the uncomfortable feeling it stirred in his stomach in favor of following baseball-cap-guy with his eyes as he ducked into a Dice's Pizza. A guy like that would probably order pepperoni, wouldn't he? Or maybe cheese. Either way, a guy who kept such a conventional appearance probably wasn't somebody to like Buffalo chicken or Ricotta and Arugala.

"I know, but every minute couldn't have been _ entirely _awful, right?" his brother asked, distracting Aaron yet again.

He heaved a sigh and turned to face his brother. "No," Aaron admitted. "I liked giving Miles a ride on my back while we were at the park."

Jeff frowned. "In your Heelies?"

Aaron rolled his eyes at Jeff's reproachful tone. "It's not like he'd have wanted a ride otherwise."

His brother snorted and crossed his arms. "I don't believe that for a second."

"Yeah, you're right," agreed Aaron with his own laugh. Turning back around, he began to walk toward the shop once more, Jeff falling back in step with him.

"_I _liked having you for dinner," he said.

Aaron felt his lips quirk with a grin. He'd sort of enjoyed their dinners too. It'd been nice hearing how Miles, Rio, Jeff's days were. It'd made Aaron feel closer to them and more like a family with Jeff than he had in a long time. "Cool."

Looking at Aaron out of the corner of his eye, Jeff suggested, "Maybe we can make it a thing when you're yourself again?"

Aaron looked up at his brother, brow furrowing slightly. "Coming by for dinner?" He'd be down for it, but did Jeff mean just once or as a routine kind of thing?

Seemingly reading his mind, Jeff nodded and said, "Yeah. Not every night, of course, and maybe not even weekly… But a couple of times a month would be cool, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, bro," he answered, smiling for real this time. "That'd be cool."

"Miles is gonna love have you 'round more," Jeff said, smiling back at Aaron.

"Yeah, he will," agreed Aaron. Seemingly satisfied with Aaron's reply, Jeff let them fall into companionable silence. He let it be until they reached the corner store. Stopping next to the door, he turned toward his brother and said, "Here we are."

His brother looked through the shop's front window and replied, "Yup."

Aaron hesitated before leaning forward to wrap his arms around his brother. "Thanks for everything, Jeff," he mumbled into his front.

Jeff placed a hand on top of his head. "Call me up when you're yourself again, okay?"

He pulled back and nodded. "Sure bro."

The bell of the store's door rang behind them and when Aaron turned around, he saw Gwen, dressed in her spider-suit walking out. In her hands was a bag of candy. "Oh! Hey there," she said when she saw Aaron and Jeff watching her.

He dipped his chin and put his hands in his sweatshirt pocket. "Spider-Woman."

She waved the bag of candy at them. "So, I er, got the candy already…"

"Candy?" Jeff echoed, voice curious.

The eyes of Gwen's mask curved with a smile. "It's a gift for the Spider who's altered the gun."

"Just how many Spiders are there?"

"Beats me," said Gwen, shrugging her shoulders. "I know five personally." Then, looking down, she added, "Though, I know of a sixth one." She sighed. " Not that I was lucky enough to meet him." Looking at them, she told Jeff, "There are probably thousands if not millions of spiders across the universes, though."

Aaron looked up at his brother whose expression was one of befuddlement. "Universes?"

She chuckled at the question. "Prowler didn't tell you about there being universes, huh?"

"No, he didn't," said Jeff, crossing his arms and half-glaring at Aaron.

"We can discuss it later, Jeff," replied Aaron, rolling his eyes. "It ain't like it's an everyday topic."

"Aight," his brother relented. "I wanna hear all about it next time we see each other though." He tipped back on his heels and slouched a little as he put his hands in the pockets of his pants. "How's after dinner next Thursday sound?"

"That's cool," he said. Then with a wave, he dismissed his brother, "I'll see ya then."

"Good." Jeff stood there for an extra beat then, looking at Gwen. As he pivoted away from them, he said to her, "Take care of him, Spider-Woman."

Gwen's eyes curved once more. "No problem, Officer," she agreed, waving at him as he finally turned away and walked back in the direction of his home.

"…Do you talk to your brother about _ anything _you do as the Prowler?" asked Gwen once Jeff disappeared from view.

"We had an understanding for a long time about not talkin' shop," Aaron answered as he kept his eye on the back of Jeff's head as far as he could manage. "It's only sorta begun to change in the last few months."

"Oh, I see," she replied. Tone half-teasing, half-fretful, she asked, "D'you ever talk about me?"

Jeff finally gone from his line of sight, Aaron looked at the girl in front of him. "You've come up a time or two, yeah," he replied.

She blinked, seemingly surprised that he and Jeff would talk _ at all _about the kid he worked with. "Really?" she murmured.

Aaron barely contained the urge to roll his eyes. "Uh-huh," he said, nodding his head.

"I don't know if I like that," she said, crossing her arms.

He sighed and reached over to put a hand on her arm. "I ain't ever said anything against you, kid."

Gwen's tense shoulders eased up and she put a hand on top of Aaron's. "Thanks, I feel a little better."

"No problem," he replied, pleased to have made her feel a more comfortable about him and Jeff talking about her.

One hand going to her hip, Gwen looked to the sidewalk and then back at Aaron. "We should get going, shouldn't we?"

He nodded. "Is that Peni girl and Porker waiting for us at May's?"

"No. Their ETA to this 'verse is twenty minutes," she answered as she shifted to be perpendicular to him.

"Aight, cool. Let's go."

"Hop on," she said, jutting her thumb at her back.

Aaron wasted no time locking his arms around Gwen's neck or ducking to hide his face between her shoulder blades before she swings them away from the shop and to May's

-o-O-o-

When the portal closed behind her fellow Spiders, Gwen stepped forward to greet them. "Peni!" she exclaimed. "Porker, my pig. How's it going?"

"Hi, Gwen, Aaron," replied Peni with a polite smile. Thrusting her hands upward, she showed off the Tinkerer's gun. "I got the gun all fixed for you!"

"Thank God," said Aaron moving up next to Gwen to inspect the gun. Helpfully, Peni held it out for him to look at.

As Aaron looked over the gun, Porker chattered at Gwen, "It was fascinating testing it out. First, we took a tomato and turned it into a seed, and then we figured out how to change its properties so it would perform the opposite."

She grinned at the pig. "That does sound really cool," she said. Tapping her chin then, she remarked, "We shouldn't let it fall into the wrong hands, but if one of you wants to keep it around and mess with it…"

Aaron's head snapped up at her words and eyes hot and reproving, he said, "As long as they don't leave it _ here _to mess with." A scowl on his lips as he gave the gun back to Peni, he stepped back. Crossing his arms, he grumbled, "It's bad enough that little shithead could build himself an all-new one."

Gwen knew he had a point. It was lame the Tinkerer could build himself a new gun. Though, perhaps not as big of a problem as it once was. Smirking, she declared, "If he does, I'll tell his parents."

"His parents?" echoed Peni, looking at her, and then at Aaron.

"That's what Gwen threatened him with when he attacked after you left, Porker," explained Aaron, staring at the animated pig, who insisted instead on focusing his attention on her.

He put his hands to his cheeks and exclaimed, "Goodness!"

"Yeah, that was a real risky move," agreed Aaron, shifting his eyes to her, the disapproval in them clear.

Gwen put her hands on her hips and huffed, "It worked, didn't it?"

He narrowed his eyes at her and jutted out his chin. "Uh-huh."

As they continued to glare at each other, Gwen saw Peni begin to shift uneasily out of the corner of her eye. Clearing her throat, the girl called out to Aaron,"…So, would you like me to turn you back to the right age now? It's calibrated and charged."

He broke his stare with hers and turned his head toward Peni. "Yeah, let's go," he agreed. "I just gotta put my suit on." Picking up the drawstring bag he'd put down on May's couch when they came into her home, Aaron left the three spiders to themselves as he went to change in the bathroom off of the kitchen.

Porker, who'd followed Aaron out with his eyes, turned his full body toward Gwen. Looking up at her, he asked, "This is what you want, isn't it, Gwen?"

"What I want?" she repeated, confused.

He sighed. "For him to be…" Porker took a hand and raised it high above his head and said, "_You know_."

"What, grownup?" She frowned at him. "Yeah, Porker."

"I felt there was no harm in asking," he replied, shrugging his shoulders. "He was an enemy not so long ago."

Gwen felt her frown deepen and a defensive feeling surge up in her. "Yeah," she all but growled, "_was _ being the keyword here. Aaron's a _ hero _now and I 100% believe its a forever change."

Porker nodded, apparently unaffected by her tone. Shifting his gaze away from Gwen, a faraway look came to his eyes. "I think more than one of us have thought that about an enemy before where it turned out not to stick," he said.

The tension in Gwen's chest evaporated at Porker's admission. Porker had dealt with a villain turning into a hero before? Why hadn't he said? Gwen would have appreciated hearing about his experience before. Through her shock, she stammered, "You've… You've had villains switch sides in your 'verse?"

"A couple of times," he replied, staring at a spot behind her.

Looking to her feet, she mumbled, feeling a little embarrassed, "I didn't realize."

"I haven't mentioned it to anyone before," Porker admitted. He exhaled and crossed his arms, a slouch coming to his posture. "Both times… It didn't end well. One died shortly after switching. Another time they went back to being a villain when being 'good' proved more trouble than it was worth to them."

Gwen's hands found their way to her mouth. For what felt like the longest time, there was nothing she could say. When she did finally have words again, she whispered, tears in her eyes, "I'm sorry, Porker."

"It's quite all right, Gwen," Porker assured her, a small, shaking smile on his face. "There is no reason to believe the same will happen with your Prowler."

Gwen was not comforted by that at all. But she didn't feel now was a good time to address _ that_. Instead, she turned her attention to Peni. She was standing a little behind Porker, hands clenched in her skirt, and gaze averted. "Peni," she called, drawing the other girl's attention. When her dark gaze met Gwen's, she whispered, half-scared of the answer, "You haven't…?"

"No," she answered quickly. Realizing she may have denied much too quickly to be believed, Peni let go of her skirt and placed one of her hands over her heart and breathed in and out. Putting on a facsimile of a smile, she said, "I've seen good people turn bad, yes, but bad turn good… Not yet."

"Watch out," warned Porker, looking up at her.

Peni nodded, a serious expression on her face. "I will," she promised. Eyes kind, she continued, "But I'll be like Gwen too and always encourage them where I can."

Porker took a step to the side and looked from Peni to Gwen, then back to Peni. "Maybe you kids will be luckier than the rest of us have been," he commented.

Gwen felt that previous horror overwhelm her again. "You're talking about Peter and Noir too, aren't you?"

He wouldn't look at her. "We've been Spiders in our respective 'verses for a lot longer than you kids."

"It's still gotta suck," pressed Gwen, hands balling at her side. She didn't like being shut out. Not like this, not by another Spider.

He chuckled humorlessly. "I won't argue with you there."

If Gwen or Peni were going to say something in reply, their chance was taken from them when Aaron called from the doorway between the kitchen and living room, "Sorry, it took me a bit." Tugging at the loose sleeve of his Prowler suit, he explained, "I had to figure out how to get this suit to drape right so it won't end up bunched in the wrong places when I fit in it."

Gwen forced herself to grin at Aaron. "No problem."

"Okay," said Peni, stepping forward. Picking up the gun, she kept it pointed downward as she told Aaron, "Maybe you should sit down."

"That's fair," he agreed. Lowering himself to the floor he said, "Here, I'll sit on the floor." Raising his eyes up to Peni, he said, "That should keep everything else safe."

Peni visibly swallowed. "Yeah, All right," she said. Breathing in, she pointed the gun at him. Finger on the trigger, she counted, "One, two, three."

Just like the first time a yellow-white shot out of the gun. It engulfed Aaron and Gwen watched, fascinated as the yellow-white light grew. Mouth dropping when it suddenly was gone and instead, the Prowler, steaming, was slouched against the kitchen doorway.

"…Aaron?" she whispered. When he didn't respond to her tentative call, she yelled his name. "Aaron!" Diving down next to him, she put her hands on his shoulders.

Before she could shake him, one of his hands came to grip her wrist in a strong hold. "Whoah there, kid," he said in an achingly familiar voice

Gwen couldn't stop herself. Throwing off Aaron's hand, she wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him a moment. When she did let go, she clasped her hands and apologized. "Sorry," she said, "it's just it worked and you look like _ you _."

He tossed his head back and laughed. "Thanks," he said when he stopped. Grinning at Gwen, he added, "That's the good news I was hoping for."

"Careful!" Gwen yelped when Aaron started to pull himself up with the frame of the doorway. Jumping to her feet, she tried to get herself under Aaron and help him.

He batted her away with a lazy hand. "I can get up on my own just fine, Gwen," he said. Looking over at Peni then, he told her, "Peni, thank you." The girl flushed and looked to her toes. Aaron turned his gaze to Porker. "You too, Porker," he said.

"Um," said Peni, drawing their attention back to her. Her face was still a bright pink as she stuttered, "Y-You're welcome!"

"What she said," said Porker, crossing his arms.

Aaron offered his own, closed-lip smile at all of them. Then, he sighed and started to walk away from Gwen, much to her surprise. Heading for the door to May's house, Aaron told them, "As much as I'd like to celebrate this success with you three, I think I'm going to get home and sleep for a while." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the key fob to his bike. "My ride'll be here in a minute."

Gwen hurried to catch up with Aaron. Stopping him before he could open the front door, she said, "I could follow you back, make sure you get there safe."

Aaron, eyes unusually unguarded, reached down to ruffle her hair. She scowled at him as he snickered. "My bike's got the path there programmed into it," he explained. Meeting her gaze, he promised, voice soft, "I'll be fine, kid."

Instead of focusing on how gentle Aaron was being with her, Gwen forced herself to laugh and grin. "Wow, it's a little weird having you touch the top of my head after the last few days," she teased.

Aaron blinked before he smirked with his teeth. "You'll get used to it again."

Gwen grabbed his hand and squeezed it between her fingers. Possibly too hard. A tightness had come to the corners of his eyes. She let up on her grip and said, "I'll call you up tomorrow to see how you are."

He nodded and she finally let him go. "Tight," he replied. Straightening himself out to his full height, Aaron turned his attention to the other spiders and lifted a hand. "See you 'round, Spiders."

"Bye!" Peni called, waving at Aaron as he opened the door and walked out.

Closing and locking it behind him, Gwen leaned against the cool metal and stared at her toes for a moment. Sucking in a breath, she decided it was now or never to ask Porker the one question that had been nagging at her since he said he'd had villains turning over a new leaf go bad. Looking over at the pig, she asked him "…You don't really think he could go back to the villain-side of the biz, do you Porker?"

"I don't know, Gwen," he answered, hands turned up toward the ceiling in a beseeching manner. "For your sake, I hope he never does."

She bit her lip. "He really loves Miles," she said. Maybe that meant something. Maybe it meant what was happening was _ for real_.

Porker exhaled. Almost regretfully, he informed Gwen, "And the Prowler in Miles's 'verse really loved him too."

Peni, who'd been following their conversation with her eyes, puffed out her cheeks. "_ I _think he's really turned a new leaf," she declared, eyes firey.

Gwen smiled at her friend. "Thanks, Peni."

"All I'm saying is be careful," Porker broke in. "It's early yet," he explained. "The more time passes…" He pointed at himself, and then at Gwen. "The more I _ and _you can trust his change in sides."

That wasn't the answer she wanted. It was the one she had though. It wasn't entirely without hope, at least. "Okay," said Gwen in as neutral a tone as she could manage.

Porker's shoulders drooped. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"No, it's fine," Gwen assured. Approaching Porker, she crouched down and put a hand on his shoulder. "You've been pretty… standoffish, I guess, with him." She sighed and looked away from the anthropomorphic pig. "It's good to know why."

He put one of his small hands on top of her fingers, drawing her eyes back to his face. "We all trust your judgment, I want you to know that," Porker promised. Not meeting her gaze, he said, "Sometimes… It's not always easy to get out of your own head."

Gwen could get that. Hell, she'd _ experienced _that. She also knew, even now, that Porker and everybody else only wanted good things for her. He was warning her to keep her from getting hurt. She appreciated that. Gwen smiled. "I understand that."

He smiled back at her. Then, Porker stepped back and pulled out his goober. Hitting the right buttons to call up a portal, he waved at her. "Have a nice day, Gwen." Then, to Peni, he said, "You too, Peni."

"Bye Porker," said Peni as he walked into the newly summoned portal before it and he disappeared altogether.

Now alone with the other girl, Gwen tried to find a way to break the suddenly awkward and heavy air between them. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, she looked at Peni and asked, "Would you like me to stick around a bit? We could watch a movie or something."

"Thanks, but I should get home," she answered. Peni pulled a face and explained, "I have an organic chem test tomorrow."

Gwen grimaced in sympathy. She'd never been a big fan of chemistry. Biology, yes? Even physics wasn't so bad. But chemistry… "Oh, well okay!" Recalling the bag of candy and Heelies she and Aaron got for Peni suddenly, she said, "Hold up a sec." Running around behind the couch, Gwen picked the plastic bag she'd put them in and brought them around for the other girl. "These are yours, a gift," she explained. Smiling at her, she added, "Good luck, Peni."

"Thanks," her friend said, glancing from Gwen to the shopping bag. Peni pulled out her goober, but before she used it, she looked Gwen right in the eye and said, "Remember we're all just a call away, won't you?"

"I will," swore Gwen.

She smiled and leaned in for a quick hug, which Gwen happily returned. "I'll see you soon, okay?" Peni promised.

"Okay," agreed Gwen. Watching the other girl call up a portal and jump into it, she yelled after her as they both disappeared, "Bye, Peni!"

Finally alone, Gwen let out a loud grown and practically threw herself face-down on May's couch. Turning onto her side and curling in toward the back of the couch she mumbled to herself, "…I hope May doesn't come home early. I don't have the energy to swing back home after all of _ this._"

Eyelids growing heavier with each blink, it took all of a minute before Gwen was fast asleep and dead to everything.

* * *

**First, with the state of things right now, I hope everyone is doing okay still.**

**As for this chapter, we've reached the end of this story! How did you like this last chapter? Aaron's final moments as a kid with Jeff? Porker's admission?**

**Thanks for reading!**


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